


I’ve Been Through Worse

by josie_josette



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Bullying, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Homophobic Language, Hosie, Mild Language, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23933530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josie_josette/pseuds/josie_josette
Summary: Word gets out that Josie's not straight and the other kids make her life a living hell. Her sister can't help and the girl that was supposed to be her best friend abandons her because she's afraid of getting dragged down with her. She's completely alone. Or at least she was until the new girl showed up.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson & Josie Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman, Josie Saltzman & Lizzie Saltzman
Comments: 83
Kudos: 268





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I posted something and I got this idea the other day so I decided to play around with it and BAM! This came out lol 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it :)
> 
> *also, just in case it's not clear, they're in sixth grade in this

Josie had no idea how people had found out about her liking girls. She’d only told two people and she was absolutely sure that neither of them wouldn’t betray her trust like that. 

The first was her twin sister Lizzie. Lizzie may not be the best at keeping secrets, but Josie knew that when it came to something like this her sister would never breathe a word to anyone about it. Especially not after she made her super secret twin swear. Lizzie had never broken one of those, she wouldn’t start now. 

The only other person who knew was her best friend Maggie. They’d been best friends since second grade when they bonded over their love of coloring everything in blue and mac and cheese. Josie had confided in her a few weeks after she told Lizzie, not being able to hide it any longer. Maggie held her while Josie cried into her shoulder, telling her that it was okay and that she didn’t care. 

So yeah, Josie had no idea how it happened, but now it was out there and it was making her life miserable. Kids would constantly push her in the hallways, calling her a freak, a lesbian, and a few other choice words that she’d rather not think about or repeat ever. 

The ones that didn’t call her names or push her around avoided her like she had the plague. They’d take one look at her and run the other way. She could hear people whisper about her as she walked by, some in hushed tones, some loud enough for her to hear. Either way, it still hurt. 

Josie couldn’t take it anymore. She hated going to school. She hated the whispers and the rumors. She hated sitting alone at lunch and recess. She hated being in class; no one ever said anything to her in there because their teacher would hear and then they’d get in trouble, but there would be notes shoved inbetween the pages of her books with the words ‘weirdo’ or ‘loser’ or ‘lesbian’ written on them. She’d always throw them away immediately with tears in her eyes, but she’d wipe them away before anyone could see. She refused to let them see her cry. 

She kept telling herself that things would blow over, that they’d find something else to obsess over in a week and they would forget about it altogether, but she was wrong. Weeks went by and things hadn’t gotten any better. If anything, they’d gotten worse. 

It went from bumping shoulders in the hall and low whispers to full blown pushing her against the walls, tripping her as she walked out of the library, and crashing into her and making her drop her lunch tray all over her shirt and pants, soaking her shoes with milk. And no one would do anything about it. Lizzie couldn’t do anything about it because she was in a different class so she had a different lunch period and Maggie had been avoiding her since word had gotten out, probably not wanting to be associated with the ‘weirdo’ that everyone was talking about. 

Josie felt utterly helpless and alone. She started hanging out in the bathroom after the incident with the tray, locking herself in a stall until the thirty minutes were over. She’d sing quietly to herself, imagining what it would be like to go to a new school where no one knew her, where no one knew her secret and where no one judged her for who she was. And when she wasn’t in the bathroom she’d go to the library, losing track of time and forgetting about the outside world in alternate universes filled with princesses and magic. 

A month after her secret had gotten out, they got a new student in her class. A short auburn haired girl with dazzling blue eyes and a kind smile. Mr. Sanchez made her stand in front of the class as he introduced her.

“Alright guys, let me have your attention,” he said, getting everyone to settle down. “We have a new student joining us. She just moved here from New Orleans. This is Hope. I expect you all to be on your best behavior and to welcome her into the class.” And then in a softer voice he said to Hope, “you can take that seat over there next to the girl with the red sweater.” 

Josie looked down at herself and quickly realized that he was talking about the empty seat next to her. There were whispers all throughout the room as Hope walked over to the desk and pulled out the chair. She placed the straps of her backpack around the back of it and took a seat, ignoring the whispers coming from the people sitting in front of them. 

She turned to look at Josie with a soft smile on her face, thinking that the girl seemed friendly enough. Josie looked over at her and couldn’t help but return her smile, even though she was extremely nervous. 

“Hi,” Hope said. 

“Hi,” Josie responded. 

“What’s your name?” Hope asked shyly. 

“Josie,” she responded, fiddling with the sleeves of her sweater and trying to maintain eye contact as she spoke. 

Hope smiled and nodded. “That’s a pretty name.” 

“Thanks,” Josie blushed, looking down at her paper. 

Just then Jason Moore, the boy who sat in the row behind them, leaned over and whispered to Hope, “Be careful there, Hope. You got put next to the class lesbian. You might catch the disease, or worse, she might get a crush on you.” 

Josie could feel the heat rise to her cheeks again and her eyes stung with unshed tears. She could hear Jason and Nick chuckling behind her, the distinct sound of a high five accompanying the laughter. 

Hope scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion at the boy’s comment. She looked over at Josie and was about to ask for clarification, but Josie had her eyes closed and she seemed like she didn’t want to talk about it, so Hope didn’t say anything. She turned around and pulled out a notebook and a pencil from her bag, giving the two boys annoyed glares as she did so, but they didn’t notice. They were too busy laughing about the brunette’s comment to see it. 

Hope turned back around and started to copy down the notes on the board, glancing over at Josie to see if she was okay. The brunette had scooted a little farther away from her, and Hope couldn’t help but wonder why. 

During lunch, Josie sneaks off to the library, losing herself in a book in the back corner of the fiction section. She never sat at the tables, it left her too vulnerable. The last time she did, one of the boys from her class had ‘accidentally’ tripped and fallen into the table, knocking her water over and spilling it all over her lap and the book she was reading. The librarian saw the entire thing and they made him pay for the damages to the book, but she still didn’t want to give anyone the opportunity to do something like that again. 

So now she sat up against her backpack, an apple in one hand and a book in the other, quietly reading to herself in the furthest corner of the library. She was almost done with the book when she felt someone standing before her. She flinched a little when the boots stopped in front of her, too afraid to look up and see who it was because she was half expecting something to be dumped on top of her.

“Are you okay?” a voice asked. Josie recognized it and looked up. It was Hope. 

“Y-yeah. Yes,” she muttered. “Sorry.” 

“No worries,” Hope smiled. “Can I join you?” 

“Sure,” Josie said, a little hesitantly. She watched curiously as the auburn haired girl crouched down and took a seat next to her.

“What are you reading?” Hope asked casually, pulling a metallic blue lunch box out of her backpack. 

Josie glanced down at the book in her lap and put it up to show her the cover, using her thumb to keep her place. “It’s, uh.. I-It’s ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry.”

Hope swallowed the food in her mouth before speaking. “Never heard of it. What’s it about?” 

“It’s about a utopia,” Josie began, letting herself relax a little as she explained the plot of the book, “and in this utopia everyone’s treated the same. There’s no differences, they all get the same things at the same time, but there’s no color, no birthdays, no religion, nothing like that. And then the main character, Jonas, gets chosen to be the receiver of memories and he finds out that things like color and birthdays and religions exist and he wants everyone else to know about them, so he sets out to find a way to share that information with everyone.”

Hope listens tentatively as Josie speaks, watching her with a soft gaze. 

“It sounds interesting,” Hope says when Josie’s done explaining. “Mind if I borrow it when you’re done?” 

Josie gives her a little smile and nods. “Yeah, of course. I just need like three more chapters and then I’ll be done.” 

“Cool,” Hope grins, taking another bite of her sandwich. 

Josie gives her a confused look, which Hope returns when she notices it. 

“What?” she asks. “Do I have something on my face?” 

“No,” Josie chuckles, getting serious after she looks up at her again, “It’s not that, it’s just… Why are you here? With me?” 

Hope looks a little hurt by the question, thinking that maybe the brunette doesn’t enjoy her company. “If you want me to go, I can go-”

“N-no,” Josie says quickly, putting a hand on Hope’s arm as she starts to gather her things. The auburn haired girl stops her movements and waits for Josie to speak. “I’m sorry,” she sighs, pulling her hand back when she realizes it’s still on Hope’s, “I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. I’m a little out of practice when it comes to talking to people. I’m not exactly the most popular person in school, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“You seem quite popular,” Hope shrugs. “I’ve heard a lot of people talking about you in the short time I’ve been here.” 

“Nothing good, I’m assuming,” Josie mutters. 

“No,” Hope admits with an apologetic smile. 

“That’s exactly my point, though,” Josie says. “I mean, you’ve heard everything they’ve said and you’re still sitting here with me? Why? Anyone else would have run for the hills by now.” 

Hope grins slightly and shrugs. “I don’t really care what they have to say. They’re just rumors. If anything it says more about them then about you.” 

Josie gives her a puzzled look. “How so?” 

“It shows what kind of people they are; mean, nasty, hateful. Not the kind of people I want to be friends with. You on the other hand, you’re nice and you’re friendly and smart from what I can tell. You’re the kind of person I like to be friends with.” 

A light blush crept across the brunette’s cheeks as she took in the other girl’s words. She looked down at her lap, bringing her knees up to her chest. “Thanks,” she murmured. 

Hope smiled at seeing how shy the girl got. There was a question she was dying to ask, but she was afraid of scaring Josie off. Regardless, she decided that now was as good a time as any. 

“Hey, can I ask you something?” 

Josie looked over at her and nodded. 

“Is it true?” Hope asked hesitantly. “Are you into girls?”

Josie’s face went pale and she avoided the girl’s eyes, opting to look back down at her knees. Hope immediately regretted asking, feeling bad that she made the girl uncomfortable. 

“Hey, it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, but I just want you to know that I don’t care if you do. I have an aunt that’s gay and she’s the coolest person I know. And her wife is incredibly sweet and awesome. They’re two of my favorite people.” 

Josie’s eyes sparkled at her words and there was a hint of a smile playing at her lips. “Really?” 

“Yeah,” Hope said softly. 

Josie looked back at her legs for a second, picking at the rip in her jeans a couple of times before she sighed and looked back up at Hope. 

“I’m not gay,” she announced. “I like boys, and girls, and just... people in general. I don’t really care about gender.” 

“So you’re pansexual,” Hope said, taking the brunette by surprise. She didn’t realize she knew the term for it, no one else seemed to have even heard of the word, but she was glad she did. It meant she understood, that she didn’t have to do a whole lot of explaining and that made her happy. 

“Yeah, exactly,” Josie said, trying to contain the happy grin that wanted to spread across her face. 

“I think that’s pretty awesome,” Hope declared, shooting her a smirk. “And anyone who says otherwise is an idiot.” 

The girls giggled quietly, smiling brightly at one another when they were done. 

Josie’s heart warmed as she looked over at Hope. This was the first time in what felt like forever that she had laughed with someone. She felt so carefree and light; it was a feeling she had almost completely forgotten about. 

Hope was about to say something when they heard the bell ring. Looks of disappointment crossed both their faces, but they packed up their things and headed for the door.

As the girls sat in class listening to Mr. Sanchez drone on and on about the civil rights movement and the impact it had on America, Josie tried her absolute best not to fall asleep. Hope looked just as bored sitting next to her, doodling in the margins of her notebook instead of actually taking notes. 

Josie got distracted by her doodles; they were really good. There was one of a rose in the corner and another of the moon right next to that, accompanied by a sea of stars. The way she shaded it in made it look almost life-like. It was really impressive. 

Josie was so lost in the drawings, she didn’t notice Hope looking at her. When she did, she blushed and looked back down at her own paper, taking her pencil quickly and scribbling down the newest notes that were written on the board. Hope giggled quietly and shook her head.

She took a loose piece of paper from her binder and folded it up into four squares, scribbling something onto it before she slid it over to Josie. 

Hope: You’re not subtle at all xD 

Josie rolled her eyes and wrote something back, sliding the paper over when Mr. Sanchez wasn’t looking. 

Josie: My bad, I'll try to be more sneaky next time. You’re really good, though :) the moon doodle is my favorite. 

Hope: Thanks, it’s one of my many hidden talents ;P

Josie: So you have more hidden talents? 

Hope: Umm, no. No, that was a lie. It’s my only talent hehe

Josie: Hmm… I don’t believe it. 

Hope: Well, that’s your opinion. But believe me, it’s the only thing I can do well. 

Josie: We’ll see about that. 

Hope took the paper and put it in the back of her notebook, giving Josie a smirk as she did so. Josie grinned and looked over at the board just as Mr. Sanchez was turning around. 

“Alright guys, we’re done with social studies. Silent reading time. Pull out your books.” 

Josie pulled out her copy of ‘The Giver’ that she was reading earlier as Hope pulled out a book called ‘The Outsiders’ which Josie had heard of, but hadn’t gotten around to reading yet. 

As everyone pulled out their books, Josie heard Nick’s voice from behind them say, “dyke.” Nobody else seemed to hear, the sound of people fumbling around for their things and chattering drowning out his voice, but she heard it. And so did Hope. 

The blue eyed girl turned around and gave him an icy glare. “Asshole,” she muttered and turned around, not missing how his face went from a smirk to a scowl. 

“I wasn’t talking to you,” he hissed. “But at least now I know you’re a dyke too.” 

Hope put on her best fake smile and turned around to face the boy once more. “I’m not, and neither is Josie for that matter, but even if I was there’s nothing wrong with it.” 

“You’re disgusting,” Nick scoffed. 

“And you’re closed-minded and annoying,” Hope smirked, turning around as Mr. Sanchez walked by. 

“Is there a problem here?” he asked, noticing Nick’s displeased expression. 

“Nope, everything’s fine,” Hope said sweetly. 

Mr. Sanchez looked over at Nick and he quickly composed himself. 

“Yeah, all good Mr. S,” he smiled. “I was just telling Hope that I really liked that book she’s reading.” 

“You’ve read ‘The Outsiders’?” Mr. Sanchez asked, the disbelief in his voice evident. 

“Yeah,” Nick nodded. “I read it last year. It was part of my Summer reading list. Very interesting book.” 

“Uh-huh,” he said, “okay. If you say so. Let’s stop talking now, though. We’re starting soon.” 

They both nodded and focused their attention on the books in front of them, not speaking to one another for the remainder of class. 

Josie glanced over at Hope with a grateful smile. Hope gave her a small smirk and a wink in response, causing the brunette to blush and bury her nose in the pages in front of her. Hope let out a small chuckle and opened her own book, getting lost in the story for the next half an hour. 

When the bell rang and class was dismissed, Josie and Hope hung back and waited until everyone was out of the room to leave. Josie always waited to be the last one so there was less of a risk of her being tripped or pushed as she walked out. Not that it prevented it completely; sometimes a few of the other kids had some time to kill and would wait for her outside to push her around a bit before leaving. 

Today there was no one waiting for her, which made Josie sigh in relief as she stepped out into the hall. Hope noticed this and decided to ask about it, her curiosity getting the best of her for the second time today.

“What’s that face about?” she asked, keeping her tone as light as possible. 

“N-nothing,” Josie stuttered. 

“You can talk to me, you know,” Hope said as they walked. “I mean, I know we only met today, but I thought we were becoming friends.” 

“We are friends,” Josie said, butterflies erupting in her stomach as she uttered the words. 

“Well friends talk to each other,” Hope stated. Josie sighed in defeat. 

“Fine,” she said. “I was just kind of glad that there was no one waiting for me outside the classroom today.” 

“What do you mean?” Hope was confused. “Who usually waits for you? And for what?” 

“Different people,” Josie mumbled quietly, keeping her head down. “They’ll wait outside until I leave and then they’ll… push me or trip me or something.” 

Hope had to really focus to hear her, but she caught every word and it really pissed her off as she took it all in. She couldn’t believe that these kids were so mean to her. Were they really that ignorant? That small-minded? Hope found it sickening; she wanted to punch someone. 

“Have you told anyone? A teacher? Your parents?” Hope asked. 

“No,” Josie said, her eyes widening in fear at the suggestion, “no way. It would only make things worse.” 

“I don’t think there’s any way that things could get worse,” Hope stated, thinking about everything that had happened today. She didn’t even want to imagine what else went on.

“Trust me, they can,” Josie said, putting a hand on Hope’s arm to stop her from walking. “Please promise me that you won’t tell?” 

Hope looked at her and sighed. There was so much pain and fear in her eyes, Hope really just wanted to hug her in that moment. She wasn’t sure how Josie would feel about it, though, so she did the only other thing she knew that would make her feel more at ease. 

“Okay,” she nodded. “Fine, I promise I won’t say anything.” 

Josie sighed in relief and they continued to walk to the front of the school. 

Lizzie was waiting for her by their usual spot. She smiled as she saw her sister walk up to them, but gave Hope a confused look. 

“Hey Jo, who’s this?” Lizzie asked. 

“This is Hope, she just moved here from New Orleans. Hope, this is my twin Lizzie.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Hope smiled, holding out her hand for Lizzie to take. 

Lizzie shook her hand and returned her smile, thankful that her sister had a friend. “You too.” 

They heard a car honk behind them and Hope grinned widely as she recognized it, seeing her mother in the driver’s seat. 

“That’s my ride,” Hope announced as she looked back at the twins. “See you tomorrow?” 

Josie gave her a very excited smile and nodded. “Yeah, see you tomorrow.” 

“Okay, bye guys.” Hope skipped off to her car, throwing her backpack in and hopping in the back seat, eagerly telling her mother about her first day as soon as she closed the door. 

Lizzie and Josie watched as the car drove away. When it was out of sight, Lizzie turned to look at her sister with a happy, yet curious look. 

“Tell me everything,” the blonde said, pulling her sister to the nearest bench and sitting them down. 

Josie went on and told her about the day's events, leaving out the part about Nick calling her names; Lizzie didn’t need to know just how bad things were and she really just wanted to focus on the good parts of her day. She smiled widely as she told her about how they passed notes in class and it only got bigger when she told her that Hope outright stated that they were friends. 

Lizzie felt such a huge relief as she listened to her sister talk. She hated that she couldn’t be there to protect her during school, and she hated that Maggie wasn’t talking to her anymore so she couldn’t help either. So now that Josie had Hope, she really hoped that the girl would be there for her. Of course she was worried that Hope would hurt her sister, but the girl seemed to have good intentions, so she was willing to give her a chance. 

Josie stepped out of the bathroom stall and headed over to the sink to wash her hands. She was humming to herself as she watched the water rinse off the soap when she heard the door to the restroom open. She looked up and her stomach sank as she saw who it was. 

“Well if it isn’t the freak herself,” Dana sneered. Her group of friends chuckled behind her. 

Josie turned off the water and quickly dried off her hands, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. Dana had other plans, though.

She stepped in front of her as Josie headed for the door, blocking her path. 

“Where’re you going? Have somewhere to be?” Her tone was mocking. 

“I do, actually,” Josie said, gathering all her courage and looking her straight in the eyes despite the nauseating feeling in the pit of her stomach. “So if you’ll excuse me…” 

She tried to move around her, but Dana just stepped in front of her again. 

“No,” she grinned. “I think we’ll have a little fun first.” 

She looked over her shoulder at the three other girls that stood behind her. Her friends smiled wickedly and immediately understood, surrounding Josie and pushing her into the handicapped stall. 

Meanwhile, Hope waited anxiously in the library, tapping her foot and looking at the watch on her wrist every five seconds. Josie had been in the bathroom for twelve minutes now and she was starting to get worried. Maybe she shouldn’t have let her go on her own. She’d tried to go with her, but Josie had insisted that she would be fine and Hope didn’t want to be pushy since they’d only known each other a few weeks. 

She was about to get up and go looking for her when the brunette walked down the aisle, her hair and shirt soaking wet, tears streaming down her face. 

Hope immediately jumped to her feet and ran over to the girl. 

“What happened?” she whisper-yelled. 

“I… I was washing my hands when these- when these girls, they…” she paused for a second, sobbing and hugging her arms tightly around her torso. “They shoved me into a stall and shoved my head in the toilet.” 

Her voice was just barely above a whisper as she finished speaking. The way her voice cracked as she talked broke Hope’s heart, but her sadness was quickly replaced by anger as her words sank in. 

“Josie,” Hope said, getting the younger girl to look her in the eyes. “I need you to tell me who did this to you.” 

Josie shook her head. “No. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Jo, please,” Hope begged. “Tell me who it was.” 

“It doesn’t matter, there’s nothing you can do. It already happened, just let it go.” 

Hope gave her a pleading look, but Josie’s puppy dog eyes made her sigh and give in. 

“Fine,” Hope said. “Come on, I have an extra shirt in my bag that you can borrow. Let’s get you cleaned up.” 

Josie nodded and followed Hope to the bathroom after they gathered their things. 

Josie really hoped that would be the last time, but Dana and her band of evil cheerleaders were relentless. It became almost like a weekly thing. They’d corner her in the bathroom and give her a swirly or a wedgie, or whatever other torture method they could come up with in the moment. But then Hope started to go with Josie, so they couldn’t. 

Sadly that only seemed to make things worse. Instead of cornering her in the bathroom they’d seek her out after school when they were sure Hope wouldn’t be around. Josie had tutoring every Thursday so after that was done they’d wait for her and back her up into the wall, ganging up on her and beating her until she could barely walk. She’d show up to school the next day with bruises on her arms and legs and with cuts above her eyebrow and claim that she’d fallen off her bike or that she was so clumsy she’d ran into some furniture at her house. 

Hope didn’t believe her, of course, but Josie refused to tell her who did it and she had no other way of finding out since she was never around when it happened. She felt so helpless, it broke her heart. Josie had quickly become her best friend in the short time she’d been there, she felt the need to protect her at all costs, so the fact that she couldn’t do that bothered her more than anything. 

One day they had plans to hang out after school. It was Thursday so Josie had tutoring, but Hope didn’t mind waiting for her. She stayed at the library and read ‘The Giver’ until Josie got out, heading over to the classroom so they could walk to the front together. 

As she rounded the corner, her eyes widened at the sight before her, her blood boiling in her veins. Dana and a group of three other girls stood above Josie, kicking at her sides and pulling at her hair. Josie cried, begging them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen. 

Hope sprinted over to them and shoved Dana forcefully away from Josie, making her stumble and fall hard on her back. The other girls stopped immediately, looking between Dana and Hope. 

“What the fuck is your problem!?” Dana shouted. 

“Me? What’s my problem?” Hope scoffed. “What the hell is your problem! You’ve been beating up my best friend for weeks, and for what? Because she’s not straight? So what? What the fuck does that matter?” 

“It’s disgusting!” Dana shouted, standing up and getting in Hope’s face. “She’s a freak!” 

Hope’s anger got the best of her and she swung in a moment of blind rage, her fist connecting with Dana’s cheek. 

Dana stumbled back, her hands flying up to her face with her mouth agape. 

“You bitch!” Dana cried. “I’m gonna report you to the principal.” 

Hope laughed loudly. “Be my guest. What are you gonna tell him though? ‘Mr. Perez, Hope Mikaelson punched me in the face because I’ve been beating the crap out of her best friend for months because I’m a homphobic asshole’?” 

Dana looked like a fish out of water as she opened and closed her mouth with no comeback. She shrieked in annoyance and finally gave up. She snapped her fingers at her friends and walked away with them trailing behind her. 

Hope watched as they walked away, but then she turned her attention to Josie who was sitting on the floor with her back pressed against the wall. Hope rushed to her side and put a hand on her cheek, examining the damage. 

“That was awesome,” Josie said softly, clutching her side but smiling nonetheless. 

“See? You should have told me sooner,” Hope joked, but her eyes were full of concern. “Are you okay?” 

“I’ll be fine,” Josie nodded. “I’ve been through worse.” 

Hope frowned deeply at her words, but Josie smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind Hope’s ear, making the older girl smile at her, her eyes softening. 

“Come on,” Hope said, “my mom’s waiting in the car.” 

Josie nodded and took Hope’s hand when she offered it, wincing slightly as she stood. The two girls walked down the hall hand in hand. And in that moment, despite the fact that Josie was bloody and beaten and in more pain than she had ever been before, she was happy to have Hope by her side.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been like two weeks since I originally posted this, I'm sorry it took so long to update. This chapter was originally like 8,000 words so I had to break it up and that took some time to figure out. Anyways, enjoy :) <3

“Come on, Josie,” Hope groaned, knocking on the stall of the dressing room for what must have been like the twentieth time. “I’m sure you look great. Just come out already.” 

Josie hesitantly opened the door and walked out of the stall, her hands covering her stomach. Hope smiled at her best friend. She was wearing a light blue two-piece bathing suit that fit her perfectly, showing off her long legs and perfectly tanned skin. 

“You look so cute!” Hope said cheerfully. Josie blushed at her friend’s words, ducking her head and letting her hair hide her face. 

“Can’t I look for something else?” she whined. “This shows too much.” 

“Aw, come on! It’s perfect, you look great in it.” 

Josie looked up at her with a strange look in her eyes that Hope couldn’t quite place. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked. 

Josie slowly let go of her stomach and suddenly Hope realized that she wasn’t embarrassed about the way she looked, she was worried about all her scars and bruises. When she pulled back her arms she saw the marks on there, some bruises were still a dark purple while the others were healing and sort of a yellowish green color. There were also a few scratches on her arms and knees, but those were almost completely gone. 

Hope gave her a sad smile and looked into her eyes. 

“How about we keep the bathing suit, but find you something to wear over it? We’ll find you a cute top and some shorts to go with it.” 

Josie thought about it for a while and eventually nodded. Hope clapped and pushed her back into the dressing room as gently as she could in her excited state. 

“Okay!” the auburn haired girl said. “Go change and then we can go look for them, MG and Lizzie are waiting for us.” 

Josie made sure to turn around so Hope could see her dramatic eye roll before she closed the door in her face. Hope giggled and sat down in one of the other dressing rooms, waiting for her best friend. 

As she sat there, she thought about the past few months. After the incident with Dana, word spread fast and very quickly people learned not to mess with Hope Mikaelson, or Joise. Nick and Jason stopped making comments during class, people stopped putting notes in Josie’s books and nobody ever waited after class to bother them. Even the whispers in the hall stopped almost completely. 

But even though no one messed with Josie when she was around, that didn’t mean that there wasn’t the occasional jerk that would push her around when they caught the brunette alone. Hope had joined the softball team when the season began, so she had the occasional meeting during lunch and she had practice every day after school. During those times, people learned to take advantage. 

Josie would never give up any names, which really bothered Hope. She didn’t understand why the brunette would protect the people that were hurting her. What she didn’t get, though, was that Josie wasn’t protecting them, she was protecting her. If Hope got into a fight, she would get suspended and get kicked off the team. Josie knew how much Hope loved playing softball, she didn’t want her to have to give it up because of her. So she just took the beatings and dealt with Hope’s frustrated glares. 

Hope was pulled out of her thoughts by a ding coming from her phone. She looked down at the message and saw that it was from MG. 

MG: hurry upppp! you girls are taking forever and we’re hungryyyy :((

Hope chuckled and sent a quick reply.

Hope: Josie’s changing back into her clothes right now. We’ll be out in a minute, stop being dramatic :P

That was another recent development, MG joining their group. 

He had become fast friends with all of them after he defended Josie in the cafeteria. MG had just moved there from a few towns over and he was standing in line to get his food when he heard someone make a very rude comment to Josie. It was on one of the days that Hope had a team meeting so she was standing alone and didn’t say anything to the boys who were teasing her. MG couldn’t stay quiet, so he walked over to them and told them off, in his own polite manner. The boys brushed him off and shoved his shoulder as they walked by him, but he just shrugged it off and asked Josie if she was okay, offering to sit with her if she was interested. They ate together and laughed, talking about MG’s hometown and his love of superheroes and comic books. 

Needless to say, Hope and Lizzie became huge fans of the curly haired boy and started inviting him to hang out with them. At first it was just during lunch and recess, but then it turned into after school hang outs and movie nights and eventually sleepovers and trips to the mall, much like today. 

“Okay, I’m ready,” Josie announced. She walked out of the stall, bathing suit in one hand and her phone in the other, seeming a lot more comfortable now that she was back in her jean shorts and her loose t-shirt. 

“Did MG text you too?” Hope asked, noticing Josie’s phone screen light up. 

Josie looked down at her phone and shook her head, laughing. She turned it around so Hope could see what her sister had written. 

Lizzie: Come on you turtle, we’re starving over here! Hurryyy! 

Hope chuckled and linked their arms as they walked out. 

They met Lizzie and MG by the shoes section and then walked over to the cash register to pay for Josie’s and Hope’s new bathing suits, along with some sandals that MG had found at the last minute. Josie and MG were pulling out their money when Hope put a hand up. 

“I got it,” she said, pulling two twenties out of her purse and handing it over to the cashier. MG gave her a thankful smile, but Josie glared at her best friend. 

“Hope,” Josie frowned, but Hope ignored her. She took her change, the bag, and the receipt from the girl, thanking her before she looked back at her friends. She rolled her eyes when she saw Josie’s frown. 

“It’s not that big of a deal, Jo. It wasn’t that much.” 

“Still, you know how I feel about you paying for my things,” Josie argued. 

“Shoot, if I’d have known you were paying I would have gotten something for myself,” Lizzie mumbled, earning a chuckle from MG and Hope and a glare from her twin. 

The four of them walked out of the store and headed down to the food court of the mall where they found Caroline and Hayley sitting at one of the tables near the center. The two women waved them over as soon as they saw them with easy smiles on their faces. 

“Hey guys,” Caroline said. “Did you find bathing suits?” 

“Yeah, MG found some swim trunks, Lizzie found a really cute red one-piece, Jo got a pretty blue two-piece and I got myself a black one-piece,” Hope explained as she took a seat next to her mom, followed by the others. 

“Oooh,” Caroline said, a smirk on her lips, “you’ll have to show us back at the house. You guys hungry?” 

“Ugh, starving,” Lizzie groaned, scowling at Josie and Hope. “These two were taking forever in the dressing room.” 

“How about you stop complaining and go get some food now?” Hope suggested. 

Lizzie didn’t say anything more, she simply gave Hope an annoyed look and stood up, following MG over to one of the fast food places on the far right side. He stopped and turned around, jogging back over to them. 

“Are you guys gonna want something?” he asked. 

“We’ll be right there,” Josie responded. MG nodded and ran over to where Lizzie was standing in line, examining the menu. 

Josie looked over and Hope. “Would it kill you to be nice to each other?” 

“Oh, come on. You know we’re messing around. It’s just how we are.” 

“I’ll never understand your friendship with Lizzie,” Hayley chuckled. 

“It’s easy; she loves me and I love her, we just bicker a lot,” Hope shrugged. “It’s just how we’ve always been. I don’t know why, but it works.” 

“It’s definitely annoying sometimes, though,” Josie sighed, standing up and nodding her head towards the line. “Come on, let’s go before they get impatient again.” 

Hope rolled her eyes but followed Josie nonetheless. They walked over to the line and stood next to their friends, discussing what they were getting for a few minutes before ordering. MG paid for the food since Hope paid for his shoes and Josie’s bathing suit earlier, even after they all argued that they could pay for themselves. MG wasn’t having it, though, so he ignored them and handed the guy the cash. 

They all mumbled their ‘thank you’s’ after and waited for their order to be called. They grabbed their food and sat back down with the two older women, discussing their plans for the rest of their trip to the mall. 

“We just need to find Josie a shirt and some shorts and I need some sandals,” Hope said, taking a bite from her hotdog afterwards. 

“Oh! I need new sandals, too,” Lizzie added, throwing her napkin on her empty tray. 

“I think I’m all good,” MG shrugged, leaning back in his chair. 

“Are you guys getting anything?” Josie asked, looking between the two women. 

Hayley and Caroline looked at each other and shrugged. “I mean, if you guys are gonna keep shopping, I guess we could look around,” Hayley smiled. 

Caroline raised her eyebrows in agreement. “I could use some new shorts?” 

“Cool,” Josie nodded. “So we’ll meet you guys back here when we’re done?” 

“Sounds like a plan,” Hayley said. “Be careful, and make sure to keep your ringers on.” 

“Please,” Caroline agreed, “Text us when you’re finished.” 

“We will,” Lizzie nodded, linking her arm with MG’s and dragging him off to the first store that caught her eye. 

Josie and Hope grabbed their bags, and Lizzie’s, and followed the blonde into the store, hearing their mothers chuckle behind them. 

They spent the next few hours browsing through stores, looking through an endless amount of shoes, shirts, and shorts before they all found something they liked. Josie paid for her outfit when they found it, making Hope grumble something about her being ridiculous or dramatic or something. Josie simply laughed and poked her side, getting a smile out of the older girl. Lizzie found her sandals and a shirt she really liked and Hope found a pair of sandals as well along with a cute ankle bracelet. 

When they were all done, they texted their mothers and met them back at the food court. After they all met up, they went to the car and Caroline drove them back to her house. 

The kids helped unload the car and carried their bags into the living room. They deposited them on the coffee table and pulled out the items, showing the women what they got. They sat around the living room and talked for a while. Hayley asked them about what they wanted to do during the summer and they talked excitedly about road trips and sleepovers, Caroline and Hayley smiling as they saw the enthusiastic glimmer in the kids’ eyes. 

After they were done, the four of them retreated to the twins’ bedroom while the two women stayed in the living room and talked. 

MG threw himself on Lizzie’s bed as soon as the door opened, expecting to get a glare from the blonde, but instead he screamed as he saw her charging towards him. Lizzie jumped on top of him, effectively crushing the boy under her. MG laughed and groaned as he felt more weight on top of him; Hope and Josie had decided to join the dog pile and now they were all giggling as they laid on top of MG. 

“Okay! Can’t breathe!” he shouted. They all climbed off of him, Lizzie being the last one to roll off with a slight shove to his arm. 

“That’s what you get for jumping on my bed,” she chuckled. 

“Sorry,” he smiled cutely. Lizzie rolled her eyes and moved over to the tv. 

“You guys want to watch a movie?” she asked, already looking through their movie collection as the tv came to life. 

They all looked at each other and shrugged in agreement. It’s not like they had much else to do. 

“Sure,” Hope answered. “What kind?” 

“How about a scary movie?” MG asked, a mischievous grin on his face. 

“No,” Josie protested. “You guys know I hate scary movies.” 

“Come on, Jo,” MG whined. “Just this once. Please?” 

“Please?” Hope and Lizzie begged as well, all three of them giving her their best puppy dog eyes. She laid back in bed and groaned. 

“Ugh! Fine!” 

“Yay!” They all cheered, making the brunette giggle. 

When they settled on a movie, Lizzie put it into the DVD player and they all started getting things ready. MG and Lizzie moved the nightstand off to the side and shoved the two beds together while Hope and Josie went down to the kitchen and got them all snacks and drinks. Once they got everything ready, they settled in and hit play. 

Josie shook with fear the entire time as Hope held her, chuckling every time she would jump, but still comforting her by rubbing her arm and hugging her close. MG and Lizzie held hands for a majority of the movie as well, both of them getting scared every now and then. 

At the end of the movie, Hayley poked her head in and announced it was time to go home. All of them groaned but nodded. They rearranged the room and put it back to the way it was. They threw away the empty wrappers scattered around the bed and put the bowls and cups back in the sink downstairs. 

When they were done cleaning up, Hope and MG got their things out of the bags and said their goodbyes.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Hope mumbled into Josie’s ear as she hugged her out on the front porch. 

“Okay,” Josie said quietly, hugging her a little tighter before letting go. Hope gave her a soft smile and pushed her hair back behind her ear. 

“Don’t worry, we only have one more week of school and then we’re out.” 

“I know, but it feels like such a long time. I just want to leave that stupid school and go to middle school already.” 

Hope’s smile widened a little at the mention of their new school. “I can’t believe we’re going to be seventh graders in a few months.” 

Josie smiled now, too. “I know. It doesn’t feel real.” 

“Come on, girls. We gotta go,” Hayley called from the car, already sitting behind the wheel. 

Hope turned back to look at Josie and gave her one final hug before she walked over to Lizzie and hugged her as well. Hope ran over to the car with MG at her side and they hopped into the backseat together, waving at the twins and at Caroline as they drove away. 

When Friday finally came, there was an air of relief and nostalgia all over. Kids were running around everywhere, signing yearbooks and laughing, happy that the school year had finally come to an end, but sad that they were leaving their friends. Some cried as they hugged one another, making promises to keep in touch over the next few months. Others simply joked and played on the grass and on the blacktop, enjoying their final moments with their friends before they had to go their separate ways. 

Josie walked down the hallway with MG and Hope at her sides, taking it all in. Today was her last day. The last day that she would be surrounded by all the people that made the last few months of her sixth grade year a living hell. And she couldn’t be more glad. 

“You look happy,” MG commented, nudging Josie’s shoulder. 

“It’s our last day, I’m ready to get out of here,” Josie shrugged, her tone nonchalant. 

“That makes two of us,” Hope agreed, glaring at Nick and Jason as they came into view. The boys ducked their heads as they saw the death glare the auburn haired girl was giving them, picking up their pace as they walked by. 

Josie noticed her expression and put a hand on Hope’s arm, getting the girl to shift her attention back to her and away from the boys. She looked like she was about to punch them and Josie didn’t want any problems today. She’d had a good week and she would like to keep her streak going until the very end. 

As they made their way over to the black top they ran into some of Hope’s teammates. The group of girls waved them over as soon as they caught sight of Hope. The three of them walked over and greeted them. 

“Hey guys,” the girl with the black hair smiled. 

“Hey Nat,” Hope said. “You all remember MG and Josie?” 

“Of course,” Natalie responded. The other girls nodded as well. “You guys are coming to my party tonight, right?” 

“Heck yeah!” MG said excitedly, getting a few chuckles from them. 

Natalie raised an eyebrow at Josie, almost as if she were expecting her to answer as well. 

“Y-yeah, I’m coming too,” Josie said shyly. Natalie beamed at her words, her light brown eyes sparkling as the sun hit them.

“Cool,” she nodded, “I guess I’ll see you there then.” 

“We’ll see you there,” Hope said, noticing the tension between the two girls. 

“Hey, we were just gonna go play volleyball on the field,” the red-head added before they walked away. “You guys wanna join?” 

Hope looked at MG and Josie, asking for their approval.

“I’ll play,” Lizzie said, coming up from behind them. 

“Me too,” MG agreed. 

Josie shrugged and nodded. “Sure, sounds like fun.” 

“Let’s go then,” Hope smiled. 

The eight of them walked over to the middle of the field and spent the rest of their time playing volleyball. They split up into two teams of four; MG, Lizzie, Ashley and Katelyn on one team and Josie, Hope, Natalie, and Riley on the other. When they heard the bell ring, Hope and Natalie high-fived each other and cheered. 

“We win!” Natalie exclaimed. 

“You guys totally cheated,” Lizzie huffed. 

“You’re just a sore loser,” Hope laughed, sticking out her tongue at the blonde. Lizzie gave her a dirty look and chased her all the way to the black top. Hope dodged her as she tried to slap her arm, laughing when Lizzie stumbled over a rock. Lizzie chased her again, but Hope was too fast. 

The rest of them walked in their general direction, laughing as they watched the two girls play fight. Natalie walked up to Josie, startling the brunette as she didn’t see her until she was right next to her. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Natalie chuckled. 

Josie blushed and looked down at the ground. “It’s okay,” she mumbled. “I’m just a little jumpy.” 

Natalie nodded and played with one of her belt loops. 

“You have a really good serve,” she commented. 

Josie laughed and looked up at her. “Thanks, but it must have just been dumb luck. I suck at volleyball. And just sports in general.” 

“I would have never guessed. I mean, you did score us a couple of points.” 

“Does it really count if MG was just distracted by a pretty girl?” Josie joked, making Natalie laugh. She has a nice smile, Josie thought. 

“It does in my book,” she responded, bumping her shoulder lightly.

They made it to the rows of kids lining up to get back to class and stood awkwardly in front of each other, not really knowing what to do now. 

“I guess I’ll see you later then,” Natalie said, offering Josie a friendly smile. 

Josie returned the smile and nodded. “Y-yeah, yeah definitely.” 

Natalie turned around and went over to where her class was lining up, her long black hair flying about as she walked away. Josie looked longingly after her as she skipped over to her friends. She was only pulled out of her thoughts when she felt a hand go around her arm. She flinched hard, only to relax when she saw it was Hope. 

“Sorry! I forgot,” Hope laughed, an apologetic smile finding its way onto her face. “What were you looking at?” 

Hope looked in the general direction in which Josie was looking and spotted the raven haired girl talking to Riley. Hope smirked as she understood what was going on, nudging Josie’s shoulder teasingly and causing the other girl to blush furiously. 

“Or should I say who?” Hope gasped dramatically. “Does my best friend happen to have a little crush on a certain softball player?”

Josie pushed her away and started to walk over to where her classmates were. “Shut up and let’s go,” she muttered, embarrassed by her friend’s teasing. Hope let out a loud laugh, but dropped it and followed the brunette. 

“Alright, alright, settle down everyone,” Mr. Sanchez said. There was only a few minutes before the bell rang and summer officially began, so everyone was excited and rowdy, but somehow they all managed to calm down long enough to let him speak. 

Mr. Sanchez cleared his throat and continued, “Thank you. I’ll keep it short, I promise. I know how excited you all are to get out of here and go party or whatever it is you kids do. I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know how incredibly proud I am of you. It’s been an honor to be your teacher this year. I’ve watched you all grow into fine young individuals and I can’t wait to see what you all do with your lives in the future, so make sure to come back and visit. I promise I won’t forget you as soon as you walk out the door.” 

They all chuckled quietly and patiently waited for their teacher to continue. 

“I hope you all have a wonderful summer,” he said. “Stay safe and have fun. Good luck next year. It’ll be scary and different, but I think you’re all going to like it.” The bell rang, but nobody moved. Mr. Sanchez smiled as he looked at each of his students for the last time. “Class dismissed.” 

Everyone got up and headed for the door, although some students went up to him and gave him hugs or asked him to sign their yearbooks. Josie and Hope hung back and waited for one of their classmates to finish talking to him before they went up with their yearbooks in hand. 

Mr. Sanchez smiled as he saw them walking up. 

“Well if it isn’t my two top students,” he said, a proud grin on his face. 

Josie and Hope smiled and paused in front of his desk. 

“Can you sign them?” Josie asked shyly. He took the book from her hands and flipped to their class picture. 

“Of course,” he said, writing in his neat scrawl off to the side of the page. He closed the book and handed it back after a minute, taking Hope’s book next. He wrote on the same page on hers too, shutting it and returning it when he was finished. “I’m really gonna miss having you two in class,” he said. “It was fun pretending not to see you passing notes under the desk.” 

Josie’s eyes widened a little, but Hope just chuckled. 

“I knew you saw us that one time!” Hope laughed, pointing an accusatory finger at her teacher. 

“Of course I saw you,” he laughed. “Josie, my dear, you have to learn how to time your passes right. Your teachers next year won’t go as easy on you as I did when it comes to passing notes. You gotta be more sneaky.” 

Josie giggled at her teacher’s words and nodded. “I’ll practice this summer, promise.” 

Mr. Sanchez shook his head and let out a sad sigh as he looked at them. “You girls were great. And I know you’re gonna do great things in the future. Just stick together; you work better when you have each other.” 

“Is that why you never separated us?” Hope asked, a curious glimmer in her eyes. 

Mr. Sanchez nodded. “After you moved here and you two became friends, Josie’s academic performance improved quite a bit. I mean, you were a good student before, but with Hope you just worked better, and you seemed a lot happier, too. So I decided that it was worth it to let you guys pass notes every now and then if it meant that Miss Josette was going to keep her grades up.” 

All three of them chuckled, but Josie’s face turned red as she did. Hope threw her arm around Josie’s shoulders and hugged the girl close to her side. 

“Well I can promise you that we will stick together,” Hope assured him. “She’s stuck with me now and there’s nothing she can do to make me leave.” 

“Good,” Mr. Sanchez smiled. “Now get out of here and go have some fun. But seriously, come back and visit me next year. Anytime you want and for whatever reason. My door’s always open.” 

“We will,” Josie said, feeling her throat tighten as she clutched her yearbook tightly to her chest. 

Both girls walked over to their teacher and hugged him at the same time. Mr. Sanchez wrapped his arms around the two girls until they let go, patting their shoulders as they released him. 

“Bye girls,” he smiled. 

“Bye Mr. Sanchez,” they said, lacing their fingers together and walking out the door to their class for the last time this year. 

Hope looked over at Josie when they were in the hallway, noticing her best friend’s sad expression. She squeezed her hand and Josie looked over at her, her eyebrows drawn in in confusion. 

“What’s wrong? I thought you were happy to get out of here,” she said. 

“Yeah, but I hate goodbyes,” Josie said, her voice barely above a whisper. “And I like Mr. Sanchez. He’s been my favorite teacher out of all the teachers I’ve had.” 

“We’ll come back and visit, I promise,” Hope said reassuringly. Josie nodded, but her frown didn’t disappear. Hope didn’t like seeing her sad, so she stopped walking and made her look her in the eyes. 

“Hey,” she said, “we have a party to go to remember?” Josie nodded. “And there’s gonna be food and music and swimming… and a certain someone who happens to be on my team that may or may not have caught your eye.” 

Josie blushed at the mention of Natalie. Hope giggled at her reaction, satisfied with the small grin that crept across her best friend’s face. 

“Now come on, we have to go home and get ready.” Hope tugged her hand and they raced to the front to meet up with Lizzie and MG.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, two updates in the same week. Crazy, I know lol I was going to hold off on this one until I'd written the next chapter, but I finished editing this one and thought, why not?   
> Anyways, hope you enjoy :) Let me know what you guys think :P

As they pulled up to the front of the Taylor’s mansion Josie fiddled nervously with the clasp of her little black purse. Hope noticed her fidgeting and reached out to still her movements. She looked her in the eyes and smiled softly. 

“Breathe,” she whispered. Josie took a deep breath and nodded. 

“Alright kids, here you go,” Hayley said from the driver’s seat. She looked over her shoulder at the girls in the back and smiled. “Have fun. Call me when you want me to pick you up.” 

“Thanks mom,” Hope smiled, leaning over to place a light kiss to her mother’s cheek. “I love you.” 

“I love you, too,” Hayley replied, watching as the four of them hopped out of the car. 

“Thanks Mrs. M,” MG said, getting out of the passenger seat. “See you later.” 

“Bye,” Hayley waved. 

Once they were all out of the car Hayley drove away, leaving the four of them giggling with excitement on the sidewalk. They took a minute to compose themselves before they walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. It only took a few seconds before the door opened, revealing Natalie on the other side sporting a wide grin as she saw them. 

“Hey!” she beamed. “You came!” 

She pulled Hope into a hug and waved her inside. “Come in,” she said to the rest of them, moving to the side to let them through the door. MG and Lizzie walked in first, leaving a very shy Josie to waddle in awkwardly after them. Hope waited for Josie and linked her arm with the brunette’s before following Natalie through the large house. 

“Okay, so food and drinks are in the kitchen through there,” she said, pointing to a room on the right side of the hall. “You can help yourselves. Bathrooms are upstairs, second door on the right and there’s one in the master bedroom at the end of the hall to the left. We’re gonna watch a movie later on after we’re done swimming, but other than that, the party's outside.”

She opened the sliding door leading to the backyard and suddenly they could hear the music twice as loudly as before. The five of them stepped outside and admired the scene before them. 

There was a large tent way in the back by the fence that contained all of the DJ’s equipment. In front of it was the pool, which went from four feet all the way to eight and contained about ten kids already. There were chairs and beach towels set up on the grass on both sides of the pool for people to sit under the shade provided by the large palm trees planted behind them. Lights were hung up all over the place, but they weren’t on yet seeing as to how the sun was barely beginning to set. 

“Nice set up,” MG commented, a little awestruck. 

Natalie giggled at his expression. “Thanks. I helped my parents decorate.” 

They heard someone calling Natalie’s name and the girl turned to see who it was. She turned her attention back to them and said, “I’m gonna go see what they want really quick. I’ll come find you guys later. Have fun!” 

Her eyes lingered on Josie a little longer than they should have, but only Josie seemed to notice. She turned and skipped over to the group of girls, leaving the four of them standing on the concrete before the pool. 

Once she was gone, Hope turned to look at Josie and asked, “Do you want something to drink?” 

Josie shrugged, trying her best not to show how much she had been affected by the girl’s smile. “I’ll take a soda. You know which one.” 

Hope smirked and turned to her other two friends. “What about you guys? Drinks?” 

“I’ll take a sprite,” Lizzie said. 

“I’ll come with you,” MG offered. 

“Okay, we’ll be back,” Hope announced, turning back to the house and going in with MG trailing behind her. 

Lizzie linked her arm with her sister’s and they walked over to some empty chairs on the side opposite of where Natalie had run off to. 

“So, what’s going on with you and ‘Little Miss Star Batter’ over there?” Lizzie asked, motioning towards the raven haired girl. 

Josie watched as Natalie talked with her friends, her stomach fluttering slightly as she saw her laugh and playfully smack Riley on the arm. The red head shoved her back and said something to make her laugh harder. Josie blushed and looked away as she noticed the smirk on her sister’s face. 

“Nothing’s ‘going on’,” Josie said, taking a seat on one of the chairs. “She’s just really nice.” 

“But you like her?” The blonde leaned on her knees, her left hand under her chin. She narrowed her eyes at her sister and continued to stare at her until Josie sighed in defeat. 

“Yes,” the brunette mumbled. “But she’s probably straight so it’s pointless.” 

“Oh, honey,” Lizzie laughed, sitting up straighter and looking over at Natalie. “That girl is so not straight. I’ve seen the way she looks at you; she was practically drooling when we were playing volleyball. She’s definitely crushing on you, too.” 

Josie kept looking at Natalie, but looked down immediately when she started to turn around. 

“I don’t know…” she muttered, but Lizzie reached out and grabbed her sister’s hand, making her look up at her. 

“Trust me on this, Jo. You should go for it.” 

Josie smiled and Lizzie let go of her hand after giving it a light squeeze. Hope and MG arrived with their drinks just then, handing them over to the girls. 

“Thanks,” Josie said, taking her cup out of Hope’s hands. “So what do you guys wanna do now?” 

“I wanna go dance,” MG announced. He held out his hand for Lizzie, but she shook her head and sat back in her chair. 

“Oh, no. I don’t really dance,” she said, but MG was not taking no for an answer.

He reached out and pulled her to her feet, laughing as Lizzie struggled against him. She gave in eventually, taking one more drink from her cup before setting it on the floor and walking away with MG to the makeshift dance floor set up next to the DJ. Hope took a seat where Lizzie was a few moments ago, giggling with Josie as they watched MG bust out his best moves, leaving Lizzie and everyone else wide eyed. The crowd cheered him on, but MG just walked over to Lizzie when he was done showing off, trying to get her to dance with him. 

“They’d be cute together,” Josie commented, taking a sip of her drink. 

Hope looked over at Josie and then back at the dance floor. She tried to imagine it as she watched MG showing Lizzie a few dance moves. She’d never thought about it before, but Josie was right. They would make a cute couple. 

“Yeah,” she finally said. “They already act like a couple.” 

“Yeah, they do” Josie chuckled. “Did you see them the other day when we were doing homework in the kitchen?” 

“No, I wasn’t really paying attention. What were they doing?” 

“Lizzie was flirting. She was messing around with him and writing on his paper to annoy him, and then when he finally did get annoyed she hugged him until he stopped being mad. And then after you left, I found them all cuddled up on the couch. It was kind of adorable.” 

Hope laughed as she listened, imagining Lizzie laying on MG’s chest on the Saltzman’s little couch in front of the tv. Then she thought of something else and smirked at Josie. 

“You know who else would be cute together?” Josie looked over at Hope and knew what she was going to say by the stupid look on her face. Hope didn’t bother to wait for a response. “You and Natalie.” 

Josie hid her face in her hands and groaned. “You guys need to stop!” 

“Wait, who else said something?” Hope was very intrigued. 

“Lizzie,” Josie said. “We were talking before you and MG got here and she was telling me that she doesn’t think Natalie’s straight and that she was ‘practically drooling’ over me when we were playing volleyball.”

Hope leaned back in her chair and nodded, taking a drink before responding. 

“Oh yeah, she’s right. Nat was totally checking you out,” Hope said. She set her cup down and watched in amusement as Josie stared at her with wide eyes, her jaw practically hitting the ground.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” she yelled, smacking the auburn haired girl’s arm. 

“Ouch!” Hope laughed. “I just did, didn’t I?” 

“You know what I mean,” Josie said with a roll of her eyes. 

Hope chuckled. “Come on, Josie. Are you seriously that blind? She made extra sure you were coming to her party, she insisted that you be on our team for volleyball and helped you with your serve the first time you went up, she walked with you back to the lines and apparently she was flirting, from what you told me, and then she was all smiley as soon as she saw you. How did you not see it?” 

Josie’s cheeks turned red as she listened to Hope. She felt a little slow now that she thought about it. It was pretty obvious, but she still felt like the brown eyed girl was way out of her league. 

Seeming to read her thoughts, Hope said, “I know that look. Stop thinking like that. You’re gorgeous, my love. And funny and smart and kind and she would be lucky to be with you.” 

“Thanks,” Josie muttered, her face turning an even darker shade of red. 

Hope smiled at her and finished her drink before she set the cup down next to Lizzie’s and stood up. She reached out her hand to her best friend and nodded towards the dance floor. 

“Come on. Let’s go dance.” 

Josie hesitated for a moment, but then she decided that this was a party and she was going to try to enjoy it, even if dancing was not her strong suit. She took Hope’s hand and followed her as they carefully jogged over to where MG and Lizzie were, off to the side of the dance floor. MG cheered as he saw the two girls and Lizzie gave Josie a surprised smile as she saw her. 

The four of them danced for the next half hour, MG taking turns spinning all of them around, he and Hope doing a little choreography that MG had taught her when a specific song came on. Everyone around them watched and cheered as they finished with their signature move. They all laughed and sat down afterwards, exhausted from all the dancing and laughing they’d been doing. 

When they got back to their seats Natalie went over to them, holding four water bottles in her arms. She smiled and held them out to them. 

“Thought you guys could use these after that very impressive performance,” she teased. 

They all thanked her and took the waters. 

“Didn’t know you knew how to dance, Mikaelson. That was pretty impressive.” 

“Well I had a pretty good teacher,” Hope said, looking over her shoulder at MG. 

MG shrugged and grinned. “I do what I can.” 

They all laughed and Natalie’s gaze fixed on Josie for a moment. Their eyes met and Josie blushed, looking away after seeing the sparkle in her eye. The raven haired girl shook her head and turned her attention back to the others, noticing their curious expressions, which she decided to ignore. 

“Have you guys eaten yet?” she asked.

“No, not yet,” Hope answered. 

“Jo was saying she was hungry, though,” MG noted. Josie glared at him, but he simply winked back at her when Natalie wasn’t looking. 

“Do you want to go get some food with me?” Natalie asked Josie. 

Josie looked over at Hope for some sort of guidance as to what she should do, but the girl just shrugged. Josie looked back over at a very expectant Natalie and forced a smile. 

“Yeah, sure,” she said, getting up and following the girl into the house. 

She could hear her friends giggling behind her as they walked away, but she just ignored them and tried to focus on her step, not wanting to trip and make a fool of herself in front of her crush. Natalie apparently heard them too because she giggled as she led Josie to the kitchen. 

“Sorry about them,” Josie muttered, nervously playing with the strap of her purse that hung across her chest. 

“Don’t worry, my friends are like that too,” Natalie said, offering her a friendly smile. 

She handed her a plate and grabbed one for herself. They each got a slice of pizza and some chips to go with. After they grabbed a couple of drinks, they headed back outside and walked back over to where Hope, Lizzie and MG were quietly discussing something. They stopped talking as soon as the girls arrived. 

“Hey guys,” Lizzie said, her voice overly excited. “We were just gonna go get some food ourselves.” 

“Really?” Josie’s tone was disbelieving, but a little amused. “What, you guys just suddenly got hungry right after we left?” 

“Yep,” Hope nodded, getting up from her seat. 

She gave Josie a small smirk and a wink as she walked by. MG and Lizzie followed her, sending encouraging smiles her way as they passed her. Josie chuckled and rolled her eyes at her friends’ subtlety. She was going to make sure to talk to them about that later. 

She turned her attention over to Natalie, who was already looking at her. Josie smiled and shrugged her shoulders. 

“So what now?” she asked. 

Natalie thought for a moment before she got an idea. 

“Come on,” she said, nudging her with her shoulder since her hands were full. “I’ll introduce you to some of my friends.” 

Josie followed her over to a table full of girls that she recognized from the softball team. Natalie introduced everyone and then they sat down. They ate while the girls talked, jumping into the conversation between bites. They talked about plans for the summer, road trips they wanted to go on, trips their parents’ had planned, where they were going to go for middle school and how excited and nervous they were for the next school year. 

After they were done eating, Natalie excused the two of them and they wandered over to another group of kids, mostly consisting of boys this time. 

“Hey guys,” Natalie said as they stopped in front of them. 

“Nat,” the tallest boy smiled. “Great party.” 

“Thanks,” she said cheerfully. “Oh, this is my friend Josie.” 

Josie gave them a small wave while they all said ‘hey’. 

“Josie this is Landon,” she pointed to a boy with curly black hair and light green eyes. “That’s Rafael,” the tall, dark-skinned boy with dark brown eyes and a nice smile. “That’s Eric,” the boy with icy blue eyes and dark black, straight hair. “And that’s Vanessa,” a very pretty brown skinned girl with light green eyes and curly dark brown hair. 

“Nice to meet you,” Vanessa smiled. 

“You too,” Josie said quietly; well, as quietly as she could considering there was music blasting from the speakers behind them. 

“Josie’s going to school with us next year, so I figured I’d introduce her to some people so she’d have some familiar faces there on the first day,” Natalie explained. 

“How sweet of you,” Eric teased. Natalie swatted at his arm, but the boy avoided it easily. 

Vanessa rolled her eyes at them and turned to Josie. “So you went to MLK, then?” 

“Yeah. Where did you go?” Josie asked. 

“We all went to Henderson,” she explained, motioning to the rest of them.

“So how do you all know Natalie then?” Her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. 

“Eric is Nat’s cousin,” Landon said, “and we’ve all been friends since kindergarten.”

“Eric practically lives at Nat’s house and we always hung out after school and after their games,” Rafael continued. 

“Oh, that makes sense,” Josie nodded. 

“How did you meet Natalie?” Eric asked, his voice full of curiosity. “You’re not on the softball team, were you guys in the same class?” 

“Oh, no. My best friend, Hope, is on the team. She’s the one who introduced us.” 

“Oh! Hope Mikaelson, right. I remember her,” Landon said, a little smile appearing on his lips as he said her name. “She was really cool. Is she here?” 

“Yeah,” Josie nodded, looking around to try to find her, but she was nowhere in sight. “Somewhere. I don’t see her, though. I should probably go look for her.” 

Natalie took notice of the uneasy expression that took over her face and nodded.

“Okay, we can go look for her.” She placed her hand on her arm and gave her a soft smile. The simple gesture sent tingles down the brunette’s spine, but she tried not to pay attention to it, which proved to be easier said than done. They said goodbye to the four of them and walked back over to the chairs where they had been earlier, but they weren’t there. Josie started to panic a little, but she tried her best to stay calm. 

Ever since Hope had come into her life, she’d become a little dependent on her. Hope was always by her side and Josie hadn’t realized just how much she’d started to rely on her until the first time Hope wasn’t right there with her. Her presence was just comforting to Josie, and right now since they were in an unfamiliar environment with people she didn’t know, Josie really needed her best friend. 

The sun had gone down by now and the yard was illuminated by the lights strung up around the trees, which wasn’t enough to be able to see clearly and at a distance. They walked around for a bit, weaving through the crowd and looking everywhere for any sign of Hope, MG, or Lizzie. They finally spotted MG’s curly hair by the side of the pool. He looked like he was getting ready to jump in and Lizzie, who was standing behind him, looked like she was getting ready to push him in. 

“Hey guys,” Josie called out. MG and Lizzie looked up and her and smiled as they saw her with Natalie by her side. 

“Hey Jo,” MG smirked. “Hi Natalie.” 

“Where’s Hope?” Josie asked, disregarding the looks they were giving her. 

“Uh, good question,” Lizzie responded, looking around for the auburn haired girl and frowning when she didn’t see her. “I think she said she was going to go look for you a little while ago.” 

“Which way did she go?” Natalie asked. They both shrugged. 

“I think she might have gone inside,” MG said. 

“I’ll go check,” Josie announced. 

“I’ll come with you,” Natalie offered. 

They walked inside the house and looked around the living room, but when they didn’t find her they wandered into the kitchen. 

“She’s not here,” Josie stated, the worry in her voice evident now. Natalie noticed her change in mood and walked up to her, placing her hands on both her shoulders and making little circles with her thumbs. Josie looked her in the eyes and felt slightly more calm. 

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Natalie said soothingly. “We’ll find her, don’t worry.” 

Josie nodded and turned around after Natalie removed her hands from her arms. They walked out into the hallway and Josie bumped into someone. 

“Sorry,” they both said. Josie looked up and saw that it was Hope.

“Hope!” she exclaimed. “Where have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” 

“I went looking for you but then I didn’t see you and I had to go to the bathroom so I went,” Hope explained. She saw the worried look on her friend’s face and frowned. “What’s wrong? Did something happen? ”

“No, nothing happened,” Josie muttered, a little embarrassed to admit how freaked out she had gotten. Her incessant worrying seemed completely irrational now. 

“Jo,” Hope said sternly. Josie sighed and fiddled with the strap of her purse. 

“I panicked a little when I couldn’t find you,” Josie admitted, a red tint covering her cheeks. 

Hope smiled and took her hand. “Aww, love. I’m sorry. I tried to find you but I didn’t see you. I won’t leave you again, though. Promise.” 

Hope turned her attention over to Natalie, who was just watching the exchange between the two girls off to the side with an easy smile on her lips. 

“Thanks for staying with her,” Hope said. 

“My pleasure,” the raven haired girl responded, looking at Josie as she spoke. There was a little sparkle in her eye for just a second, but Hope caught it; and for some reason it made her stomach feel weird. She ignored the feeling and smiled at the girl. 

Hope cleared her throat and laced her fingers through Josie’s. “You guys want to go swim now?” 

“Sure.” Natalie perked up at the suggestion. 

“Yeah, Lizzie and MG are already in there,” Josie added. Surely her sister had thrown MG in by now.

They walked over to the pool and, surely enough, the two of them were in the pool having a water fight. 

“You started this!” MG shouted, giggling as Lizzie splashed water directly in his face. 

“Well if you had just stopped being a chicken and jumped in on your own this wouldn’t be happening!” Lizzie shouted back. She squealed in surprise as MG grabbed onto her waist and threw her farther into the pool. When she resurfaced she glared at him and he started swimming away as fast as he could as she did the same. 

Hope, Josie and Natalie watched in amusement as they chased each other around the pool. Natalie turned to the two of them and raised an eyebrow. 

“Ready to jump in?” she asked, taking off her shirt and tossing it onto a nearby chair. Josie’s eyes widened as she took in her dark burgundy bathing suit. It fit her perfectly and she seemed so confident in it, it made her look a thousand times better. 

Hope nudged her when Natalie turned her back to them so she could take off her shorts. 

“Now you’re the one drooling,” Hope said quietly into Josie’s ear.

Josie rolled her eyes and walked over to the chair next to Natalie’s so she could set down her purse while Hope went over to the next one. She stood there for a minute with her hands hesitantly on the top button of her shirt. She was scared of what Natalie would think when she saw her scars. She knew the girl was aware of what people said about her, and what they did to her; they went to the same school, she had definitely heard the rumors. But still, to have her see the marks, to let her know just how weak she was? Josie didn’t want her to see her that way. 

“Are you okay?” Natalie walked over to her side and gave her a questioning look. She saw the uncertainty in her eyes before she forced a smile. 

“Yeah,” Josie sighed. “I’m just not used to wearing bathing suits, I’m a little self-conscious.” 

Natalie gave her an encouraging smile and shook her head. “You shouldn’t be. You’re beautiful.” 

As soon as the words left her mouth she blushed and looked down at the ground, refusing to meet Josie’s eyes. Josie stared at her with a very shocked expression on her face, her cheeks turning red as well. Neither of them knew what to say at this point, so Natalie cleared her throat and decided to excuse herself, muttering something about going into the pool before retreating quickly. 

When she left, Hope walked over to Josie and looked at her curiously, taking in her friend’s appearance. “What did I miss?” 

“Natalie just called me beautiful,” Josie said slowly, still not believing what had just happened. The girl had been flirty, there was no denying that now, but she’d never just outright said something like that. It had caught both of them by surprise. 

“No way,” Hope chuckled. “See? I told you she liked you. What did you say?” 

“Nothing,” Josie said, finally looking directly at her. “I just stared at her like an idiot until she said she was going to get in the pool. She wouldn’t even look at me, though.”

“Well she was probably just embarrassed. Natalie’s a big flirt, but even she has her limits. She’s more of a subtle flirt, not an outright flirt.” 

“And how would you know?” Josie challenged. 

Hope laughed. “Chill, she hasn’t been flirting with me, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just know because we’ve talked about it before, at one of the team sleepovers.” 

Josie gave her a playful glare before she turned her attention over to the raven haired girl in the pool. She was tossing around a beach ball with Lizzie, MG, and Ashely, the pretty blonde from their softball team. She seemed to be doing better now; the red had disappeared from her cheeks and she seemed to have forgotten about the incident that took place not too long ago. 

Hope waved her hand in front of her face and laughed. 

“Earth to Josie,” she said. “Are you just gonna stare all night or are you going to get out of your clothes so we can get in?” 

Josie hesitated again at the thought of being in just the bathing suit. Hope noticed the change in her mood and grabbed onto her shoulders so Josie would look her in the eyes. 

“Hey, look at me,” she said, getting her attention. “It’s okay. Nobody is even going to notice. It’s dark, and you’ll be in the water so they won’t really be visible. And if anyone says anything I’ll kick their-”

“Okay,” Josie said, interrupting her before she could finish. Hope was fine with cursing every now and then, but Josie didn’t like it. She didn’t like the way the words sounded and they made her uncomfortable for some reason, so she never said any of them herself and she tried to prevent her best friend from using them at all costs. Hope found it very amusing and extremely adorable, so she’d do it on purpose just to get a reaction from the younger girl. 

“Okay then,” Hope smirked. 

Josie turned her back to her and slowly unbuttoned her shirt, pulling it off and setting it on top of her bag. She carefully slipped out of her shorts and tossed them on top of the chair as well. When she was done, she turned around and looked at Hope with a shy smile, covering her stomach much like she had in the dressing room earlier this week. 

Hope gave her a soft smile and pulled her hands away from her stomach. Josie pouted, but didn’t try to stop her. 

“Come on, Jo. You look gorgeous.” 

Hope dragged her over to the edge of the pool and let go of her hands so she could get in. Josie paused for a second, dipping her toes in the water before actually getting in. After they both got a little more used to the water, they wandered over to where her friends were getting ready to play volleyball. 

“I want a rematch,” MG declared. “That game this morning was totally unfair.” 

“You’re starting to sound like your girlfriend,” Riley teased and MG and Lizzie both blushed. 

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Lizzie declared. 

“Could’ve fooled me,” Ashley chuckled. 

“Alright Ash. Leave them alone and let’s get going,” Natalie called out over the music. 

They split up into the same teams from earlier today, adding in a few more players into the mix. Natalie smiled shyly at Josie as she joined her on the deep end. Josie smiled back and stood between her and Hope, focusing her attention on the ball flying in her direction. 

They spent the next half hour playing. Josie surprised everyone, including herself, as she scored a majority of the points. Turns out that water sports were her thing, since here she couldn’t trip over her own feet. When the game was over their team cheered; they’d beaten them at two of the three games they’d played. 

“Stop pouting, Lizzie,” Josie laughed, throwing her arms around her twin as they got out of the pool. “It’s just a game.” 

Lizzie glared at her twin. “You would be pouting, too, if we had won.” 

“Because you’re a bad winner and you’d be throwing it in our faces right about now,” Josie laughed. Lizzie thought about it for a minute and then shrugged, basically confirming Josie’s accusation. 

Natalie walked over to them and handed them some towels. “Here. I noticed you guys forgot to bring some so I had Eric bring a few.” 

Josie smiled sheepishly and muttered a quiet, “thank you,” as she wrapped the towel around herself. 

The two girls stared at each other while Lizzie stood there, awkwardly watching as they struggled to figure out what to say. She decided to step in after what felt like an eternity of them just standing there. 

“So,” Lizzie said loudly, making them both jump a little, “are we going in for the movie now?” 

“Uh, yeah,” Natalie said, blinking a few times to collect her thoughts, “yeah, we’re watching ‘Scary Movie’.”

“Your parents are letting us watch ‘Scary Movie’?” Lizzie asked incredulously. That movie is rated R, there’s no way they were letting a bunch of twelve and thirteen year olds watch it. 

Natalie shrugged. “They think we’re watching ‘The Incredibles 2’ and they trust me, so they won’t be checking up on us.” 

“Hmm,” Lizzie hummed, nodding her head in approval. “Sneaky. I like it.” 

“Let’s go,” Josie said, shaking her head at her sister’s comment. She pulled Lizzie by the arm, calling MG and Hope before they headed off into the house. 

After Natalie had the DJ announce that they were going to start the movie soon, everyone made their way over to the Taylor’s in home theater. The room was set up like an actual movie theater; there were four rows of ten very comfortable-looking seats so there was enough room for everyone and the screen was big enough to see clearly from all the way in the back.

Josie and Hope made their way to the back row while Lizzie and MG went over to the side of the room with some of the girls from the softball team; it seems they’d made some new friends during the volleyball game. Natalie joined Josie and Hope in the back with Josie sitting in the middle. 

“This is so cool,” Josie whispered as the movie started playing. 

“Yeah,” Natalie smiled. “I like to watch scary movies in here, it makes them even better.” 

“I hate scary movies. I can’t imagine watching one in here,” Josie shuddered. 

Natalie giggled, but stayed silent as the opening scene came into view. 

As they watched the movie Josie leaned closer to Hope. It was mostly off instinct since she was her best friend, but a part of her was doing it on purpose to put some distance between her and Natalie. The thought of getting close to her made her extremely nervous and she really didn’t want to have a panic attack right now just because she didn’t know how to act around pretty girls. 

She glanced over at her and found her concentrating hard on the screen. A little too hard, if you ask her, but then she thought about their little moment earlier and how flustered she’d gotten, so it made sense. She knew that she would be doing the same thing if the roles were reversed. 

Josie sat up straighter and put her arm on the arm rest to the right of her, not really thinking much of it. But then she felt Natalie shift in her seat and suddenly the butterflies in her stomach started going crazy as Natalie’s pinky brushed up against hers. Josie swallowed hard and kept her eyes on the screen. She couldn’t look. If she looked she would probably start freaking out and that would be really embarrassing, so she just watched the movie as Natalie linked their fingers, trying her best to contain the huge smile that was trying to spread across her face. 

Hope felt Josie stiffen in her seat and was about to ask her if she was okay when she glanced over at her and noticed where her hand was. When she saw Josie’s pinky intertwined with Natalie’s, she got that weird feeling in the pit of her stomach again. She turned her attention back to the screen and frowned. She couldn’t understand why she kept feeling like that, or even what the feeling was. She’d never experienced it before and she really wished it would stop happening; it wasn’t fun. 

She looked back over at the two girls’ hands and saw that they hadn’t moved. Josie was blushing, she could tell even in the dark, and by the look on Natalie’s face she was assuming that she was too. Hope didn’t want to think about them anymore, so she forced herself to watch the movie and ignore them until the credits rolled. 

“Thanks for inviting us, I had a lot of fun,” Josie said as she turned to face Natalie. Hope was making her rounds, saying goodbye to all her friends from the team and from the other school - the ones Natalie had introduced her to earlier - and Lizzie and MG were exchanging numbers with the girls they’d been hanging out with for the later half of the night, so Josie thought it would be a good opportunity to talk to the raven haired girl in private and hopefully get some answers as to what would happen now. 

“Me too,” Natalie said with a slight twinkle in her eyes. She fiddled with her hands nervously and occasionally glanced up at Josie through her eyelashes as she said,“I was actually wondering if you’d want to hang out during the summer? You can have Hope give you my number, if you want, and we can make plans or something.” 

Josie’s breath got caught in her throat and it took her a minute to remember how to breathe. “Y-yeah, umm, I’d - I’d like that,” she stuttered. 

Natalie beamed at her words, finding her stuttering adorable. “Okay, great.” She heard her name being called from the kitchen and gave Josie an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I gotta go.” 

“Hey Jo, my mom’s here,” Hope said as she walked up to them. She smiled at Natalie. “Thanks for the party, it was great.”

“Yeah, no problem. I'm glad you all could make it,” Natalie responded. 

“We should go,” Hope said after a moment of silence. “Bye Nat.” 

“Bye,” Natalie said quietly, mostly looking at Josie when she did. Josie smiled at her and followed Hope out the door, but not before casting one final glance towards the raven haired girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert smiling devil emoji here* xD


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :) this one's a little on the shorter side, but I hope you guys still enjoy. Let me know what you think, I really like hearing what you have to say.

Her entire life Josie had dreamed of a perfect summer. A summer where she would go out with friends on late night adventures, where they would go on road trips, movie dates and have endless sleepovers. A magical summer where she would get to spend it with someone she really liked, someone special. And that’s exactly what she got. 

During their break from school Josie, Lizzie, Hope, and MG spent almost every moment together. They went down to the pool almost every day, swimming until their arms and legs couldn’t stand it anymore, or until the sun went down and their parents had to drag them back home. They had sleepovers every weekend, rotating houses depending on whose parents wanted to deal with the crazy soon-to-be teenagers that week. They even took a trip down to New Orleans to visit Hope’s family after Freya and Keelin announced that they were expecting another baby. 

Natalie joined them on a lot of their outings as well. After the party, Josie had gotten her number from Hope and the two girls had started to spend a lot more time together. She went with them on a few of their trips to the beach, she joined them for movie nights, and she’d crashed a couple of their sleepovers as per Josie’s request. 

As the two girls spent more and more time together, their feelings for each other only grew, and at some point during those two months they decided to give this, whatever it was, a try. 

They were very awkward at first, neither of them able to look the other in the eyes as they held hands, but eventually they got over their shyness and grew more comfortable in the other’s presence. They went on endless dates to the movies, the arcade, and even on a few picnics in the park. After a few weeks of uncertainty about what they were, Natalie finally decided to ask Josie to be her girlfriend.

It was everything Josie had dreamed. She had a wonderful group of friends, a beautiful girlfriend that made her happier than she’d ever been, and she was having the time of her life going on all these crazy, fun trips with her family. Everything was great. 

But while everything was perfect for Josie, Hope’s summer vacation was not going too well. Not that it was all bad. She loved spending time with her friends. Late night trips down to the lake by her house were her favorite; she and Josie would spend hours staring up at the stars while MG and Lizzie had water fights and swimming competitions. She also loved getting to show them around her hometown when they visited her family. She took them to all her favorite places and she got to introduce them to some of her friends whom she hadn’t seen in years. 

No, her summer only started going downhill when Natalie started coming around. It’s not that Hope didn’t like her; she was her teammate and she had always been a good person and a really good friend. The only problem was that whenever she saw her with Josie she felt weird, angry almost. She hated seeing them hug or hold hands. The mere sight of them looking at each other with goofy smiles plastered on their faces made her stomach turn. 

She didn’t understand why; Josie was her best friend, she should be happy for her. Hell, she was the one that encouraged Josie to go for it in the first place, she had no reason to feel that way whenever she saw them together. Still, even though she knew all of this it didn’t stop the annoying feeling from nagging at her every time they were in the same room. 

Hope thought she did a pretty good job of hiding how she felt. She would smile at them when they were around, she would encourage Natalie to keep hanging out with them, even though sometimes she didn’t want the girl around, and she would smile and listen to every word that Josie said as she gushed about her new girlfriend. But apparently she wasn’t as subtle about her dislike of the girls’ new relationship as she thought because MG noticed. And MG didn’t try to hide his curiosity. 

“Okay, Hope. What’s up?” he finally asked one day while they were out on a trip to Panama City Beach. 

They were sitting on one of the beds in their hotel room waiting for Josie to get out of the shower. Natalie and Lizzie were out with Caroline and Alaric getting them food so they had a minute alone. 

“Huh?” Hope asked, being pulled out of her thoughts. 

“What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting weird ever since Jo and Natalie started dating.” 

“What? No I haven’t,” Hope said quickly, her tone defensive. 

MG gave her a semi-stern look and she sighed, deciding that maybe she should talk to him about this. She couldn’t exactly talk to Josie about how she was feeling for obvious reasons, and she couldn’t talk to Lizzie about it because she’d just tell Josie, so MG was her best option. They’d only been friends for a short period of time, but in that time he’d proven himself to be trustworthy and reliable, not to mention a really good listener. She could trust him with this. 

“Okay, so maybe I have,” she said softly. “I just - I don’t know how to explain it.” 

“Just try your best,” he said with an encouraging smile. He adjusted his position on the bed so he was fully facing Hope before he continued. “I mean, do you not like Natalie? Did she do something?” 

“No, it’s not that,” Hope said, frustration evident in her voice. “I like Natalie, she’s a good friend and honestly my favorite teammate. It’s just... I don’t like seeing her with Josie.” 

Understanding flashed in MG’s eyes and he let out a quiet, “oh,” in response. Hope’s shoulders slumped slightly and she buried her face in her hands. 

“I know, it’s terrible. I should be happy for them,” she said, sitting up again after a few seconds, “but - I don’t know. It’s like, when I see them together I get this really weird feeling in my stomach and I get kind of… angry or something. It’s weird, I don’t know what it is. I’ve never felt like that before.” 

“Sounds to me like you’re jealous,” MG stated. Hope’s eyes snapped up to meet his, her face twisting into that of confusion as she processed his words. 

_Jealous?_ That couldn’t be right. 

“Why would I be jealous?” she asked.

“Because clearly you have feelings for Josie,” he stated, rolling his eyes slightly as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

“No I don’t.” Hope couldn’t think straight. Her mind was racing. 

She couldn’t have feelings for Josie, there was just no way. She was her best friend, nothing more. I mean, sure, she was gorgeous and funny and smart and she always knew the right thing to say when Hope was upset to get her to smile again. And of course she was aware that every time Josie would laugh at one of her terrible jokes her stomach would fill with butterflies. And, okay, maybe she enjoyed their cuddling sessions a little more than she should, but that didn’t automatically mean she had feelings for her. Right? 

MG gave her a disbelieving look and sighed. “Come on, Hope, it’s so obvious. You guys are always together, you’re always cuddling, you’re always holding hands, you were basically drooling that day at your aunt’s party when you saw her in that dress, and now you’re telling me that you’re jealous of her and Natalie. You like her.” 

“She’s my best friend,” Hope argued, “that’s why we hold hands and cuddle and why we’re always together. And maybe I’m jealous because I want a relationship like theirs, not because I want to be with her.” 

“Why are you trying so hard to talk yourself out of this?” he asked. “Why can’t you just accept that you like her?” 

“Because that would change everything,” Hope said, a little louder than she had intended to. She took a deep breath and then more quietly she added, “If I say it out loud then it’s real. And it can’t be real, I can’t feel that way about her. She’s happy and she deserves to be happy. She’s been through so much and she finally found someone that makes her smile and I don’t want to ruin that. Besides, it would be really shitty on my part if I were to tell her that I like her after I was the one that got them together in the first place.”

MG nodded, understanding where she was coming from. “I get it,” he said. “It would be kinda messed up, but it’s okay. You made a mistake. You didn’t know how you felt about her when you told her to get with Natalie. You’re human, you’re allowed to have regrets, but you can’t ignore the way you feel about her.” 

Hope looked down at her hands as she felt a lump form in her throat. She swallowed it down, taking a deep breath to push back the tears that were beginning to spring up in her eyes. 

“I hate feeling like this,” she said, her voice wavering with every word. “I hate feeling jealous, I hate feeling like I'm stuck. She’s the one person I want to talk to about all of this, but she’s also the one person I _can’t_ talk to and I just, I fucking hate it.” 

MG didn’t say anything. There was nothing he could say to make her feel better right now and he knew that, so he just stayed quiet and listened as she processed her emotions out loud. 

“I hate myself for introducing them at all,” she whispered. MG could feel the guilt emanating from her as she said the words. “I know that’s selfish and messed up, but I can’t help but think that if I’d never taken Josie to that game and they hadn’t met then none of this would be happening.”

MG placed a hand over hers and she finally looked up at him. 

“Like I said: you’re human, you’re allowed to feel these things. Stop beating yourself up about it. You just gotta figure out what you’re gonna do about it now.” 

“That’s the problem, though.” Hope sighed and looked down at their hands. “I have no idea what to do.” 

“You’ll figure it out,” he said, a sympathetic smile on his lips. “I will help you figure it out.” 

She looked at him, her eyes full of hope. “Promise?” 

“I promise.” 

The weeks following her talk with MG, Hope couldn't stop thinking about what he said. His words played on a loop in her mind, like a broken record playing the same song over and over again. 

_“Clearly you have feelings for Josie.”_

_“Come on, Hope, it’s so obvious. You like her.”_

_“You can’t ignore the way you feel about her.”_

And as much as she wanted to deny it, as much as she didn't want it to be true, she just couldn’t hide it anymore. She couldn’t keep lying to herself. She did have feelings for Josie. 

As she laid on the floor of her treehouse looking up at the stars through the side window, she thought back over the last six months that she had spent with her. She went over every memory she had of her and Josie, looking for something, anything that could have indicated that she was falling for her. Every laugh, every touch, every sleepover, every inside joke they shared, every afternoon they spent doing homework together… 

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was _because_ of all those things that she had fallen for her. It wasn’t a specific day. It wasn’t a specific moment. It was all of it combined. She had slowly fallen for her laugh, for the shy way in which she asked for things, for the way she snuggled up into her side when they had movie nights and most importantly, she had fallen for the way she was so kind to everyone she met despite the horrible way in which she had been treated in the past. 

Hope sighed and closed her eyes. She needed to stop thinking about her. She needed to get her out of her head because thinking about all of this was only making her feelings for her grow and that was exactly the opposite of what she should be doing. 

She should be trying to get over her. She should be finding reasons as to why she didn’t like her. But there was nothing to dislike about her. 

Hope loved everything about Josie, even the bad parts. She loved her when she was an anxious mess, crying on the bathroom floor after someone said something rude to her. She loved her when she was insecure and thought she looked terrible in whatever it was she was wearing. She loved her when she was angry and didn’t want to speak to anyone, not even Hope. She loved her when she was moody and lashed out at her for no reason only to come crawling back to her minutes later. She loved everything about her and nothing would ever change that. 

She turned over and groaned loudly into her pillow, grateful that she was too far away from her house for anyone to hear. This was not going the way she had hoped. And now that she had accepted it, she desperately needed to talk to someone about it. She needed someone else’s opinion on the matter because just thinking about it on her own was driving her insane. 

She pulled out her phone and went into her contacts, not having to scroll very far to find the one she was looking for. 

The woman answered after two rings. “Hello?” 

“Hi Aunt Freya,” Hope said softly. “Sorry, I know it’s late. Did I wake you?” 

“No, actually. I was just with Nik, he had a nightmare and he couldn’t go back to sleep,” she explained. “Why are you up so late?” 

Hope sighed. “I couldn’t sleep…” 

Freya recognized the tone in her voice; she could tell something was bothering her. 

“What’s on your mind, kiddo?” 

“A lot,” Hope chuckled. “I like someone and I shouldn’t, but I do and I can’t tell them because then it would ruin our friendship and I can’t lose them. And besides, they’re with someone else and I was the reason they got together in the first place, so it’s not like I can just be like ‘Hey, I changed my mind. I like you, you should be with me and not her. Sorry I didn’t realize it sooner. My bad.’” 

Freya listened as her niece rambled, taking in the information and connecting the dots with ease. 

“It’s Josie, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Wha- How did you... Seriously?! Could everyone else see it but me?” 

Freya laughed quietly at her niece’s reaction, trying not to wake Keelin or Nik. 

“Apparently,” she smiled. “You’re an open book, Hope. When you guys came to visit it was written all over your face. You looked at her like she was the center of the universe or something. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together.” 

“Well, I feel stupid,” Hope half-laughed. “I didn’t figure it out until like an hour ago.” 

“What made you finally see it?” 

“MG,” Hope said simply. “He confronted me about it in Panama City and ever since that day everything he said to me has just been replaying in my head. I came out to the treehouse tonight to try and sort my feelings out, but I think I just made things worse.” 

“How so?” Freya asked, her voice full of curiosity. 

“Well, I was trying to figure out when I started liking her and then I started thinking about all the time we spent together and her laugh and the way she smiles and stuff like that, and so I started liking her even more. And then I tried to make myself stop liking her so I tried to find things about her that I don’t like, but even those things I love about her. So I made things worse. I like her even more now.” 

Freya laughed softly and shook her head. “You’re in a bit of a pickle, aren’t you?” 

“Yeah,” Hope breathed, followed by a light chuckle. After a moment of silence she asked, “What do I do, aunt Freya? I like her so much, but i’m scared that if I tell her I’m gonna lose her.” 

“You’re not going to lose her,” Freya said confidently. 

“How can you be so sure?” Hope asked, genuine concern laced in her words. 

“Hope, this is Josie we’re talking about.” Freya let out a small chuckle. “The girl couldn’t go five minutes without you when you guys came over. Believe me, there’s no way she’d ever stop being your friend.” 

Hope smiled, remembering their trip to her family’s house in New Orleans. Josie had spent the entire time by her side, holding on to her hand when they were out and sitting right next to her wherever they went. Her family had teased the two of them, saying that if Josie wasn’t with Natalie they’d think that the two of them were a couple. The two girls had blushed and laughed it off, but a part of Hope had secretly fantasized about what it would be like if the two of them were together later on that night. 

After a long moment of silence Freya decided to talk. 

“Look, sweetie, I know this sucks. I wish I could tell you what to do or wave a magic wand around in the air and fix everything, but I can’t. But what I can do is give you some advice.” Hope waited, listening intently. “Stop trying to find things about her that you don’t like, stop trying to get rid of your feelings for her. That’s not how it works. I wish we could decide who we fall in love with; believe me, it would make things a lot easier. But since we can’t, instead of spending all your time and energy trying to get rid of your feelings for her, maybe you should redirect that energy into something else.” 

“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Hope muttered quietly. Maybe a good distraction is exactly what she needed. If she found someone else she liked, then maybe she could start to move on from Josie in a romantic way and simply be left with her love for her in a more platonic way. 

“The fact that you sound so surprised offends me,” Freya teased. Hope laughed and rolled her eyes, wishing her aunt could see her. 

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she answered, but she knew her aunt was only messing with her. 

“Sure you didn’t,” Freya laughed. “Anything else rolling around in that pretty little head of yours?” 

“No, not that I can think of,” Hope smiled. “Thanks for listening, though. And for the advice. I really appreciate it.” 

“Any time, love.” 

“Babe?” Hope heard in the background. It was her aunt Keelin. 

“Oh, sorry Hope. Gotta go. The wife’s up.” Hope chuckled. 

“It’s okay, aunt Freya. I should be going to sleep anyway. Thanks again. And say hi to aunt Keelin for me.” 

“Will do,” Freya smiled. “I love you. Goodnight.” 

“Goodnight, I love you too.” 

The line cut off and Hope let out a small sigh. Time to find her new distraction.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so very genuinely sorry that I haven't updated any of my fics in like two months. I seriously hadn't realized it had been that long. I promise I'll try to be better about updating. I have the next few chapters planned out, I just need to sit down and write them lol so stay tuned for that ;) but for now, enjoy <3

“Come on, Hope! You have to come with us!” Josie bounced on Hope’s bed, shoving the older girl as she begged her for the tenth time today. “Summer is almost over and once school starts who knows if we’ll all be able to hang out as much.” 

“Why do you say that?” Hope asked, hoping that would distract Josie from the matter at hand. 

Josie stopped bouncing and sat down with her legs bent under her, leaning on Hope’s legs to support her. “Well,” she sighed, “you’re gonna do softball in the spring and up until that starts you’ll probably join some other club or sport so your afternoons will be busy, Lizzie already has a few clubs in mind, but she’ll probably go with the newspaper club and that takes up a lot of time, MG will be busy with dance and Nat told me she’s gonna do cross country _and_ run for student council. So as you can see, you’re all gonna be busy.” 

“And what about you?” Hope turned her head to the side, raising her eyebrows at her best friend. 

“What about me?”

Josie stood up and walked over to Hope’s desk, running her hand over the polaroid pictures of her and her best friends that they’d taken throughout the summer. 

“What are you gonna do to fill up all those lonely afternoons?” 

Hope stood up and walked closer to Josie, staying behind her and watching carefully as her fingers moved lightly over the pictures. Her finger hovered over one of the two of them longer than any of the others. Hope looked at the picture and smiled. They had taken that one on their trip to New Orleans in Hope’s favorite little hideout - a secret garden hidden behind an old library in the French Quarter that the librarian had shown her. She’d told Josie about how she’d sit out there and paint for hours, until the sun set and she was forced to go home; about how no one knew about this place except for her, and now Josie too. 

“ _Thanks for bringing me here_ ,” Josie had said as she gently laid a hand on top of Hope’s. “ _It means a lot to me - to know you trust me._ ”

Josie pulled her hand away and turned around to face Hope, pulling the older girl out of her memories. Josie leaned back on the desk and crossed her arms over her chest. 

“I don’t know,” she shrugged shyly, “probably just go home and study, do homework or something?” 

“Ugh, no way,” Hope said. “Come on Jo! We’re in middle school now! You have to go out and explore, figure out what you like, who you are, make new friends.”

“I don’t know, Hope…” she trailed off, her voice filled with fear and uncertainty. 

“You don’t know what Jo?” Hope asked, a little harshly. But then in a much kinder tone, she added, “Look, I know you had it rough last year - really rough - but this year it’ll be different. Nobody knows you here. You get to decide who you want to be, how you want people to see you.” Josie nodded and Hope smiled. “‘Kay, so what’ll it be? Cooking club, creative writing club, poetry club, music club, book club…?” 

“Hmm…” Josie hummed. “I think I’ll try out guitar club.” 

“Great!” Hope said cheerfully. She turned on her heel and walked back over to her bed, laying down and folding her hands over her stomach. 

Josie smiled and rolled her eyes. “I hope you know it didn’t work, by the way.” 

“What are you talking about?” Hope asked, although she knew perfectly well what she meant. 

“Your little distraction to get me to forget about trying to convince you to come with us today.” Hope groaned and covered her face with the other pillow. 

Josie crossed the room and took the pillow off of her face. She put on her best puppy dog face and begged her again. 

“Please come with us today? Pretty please?” 

Hope tried averting her eyes, knowing she would break if she looked at her for too long, but Josie kept moving directly into her line of sight every time. Hope sighed and stood up, pushing past Josie and heading for the window. 

“I don’t get why you want me to go so badly,” she half laughed, frustrated with Josie’s inability to take no for an answer. She leaned on the windowsill and stared out onto the street, watching the cars drive by. 

Josie stood up and faced Hope, trying to read her expression. Her mood changed so quickly sometimes, it was hard to keep up with. 

“Because you’re my best friend,” the brunette responded, a little taken aback by her tone. “Because it wouldn’t be the same without you. Because you’re not doing anything else today. Because I wouldn’t be able to have fun knowing you were here, alone when you could have been out there with us. Because I can’t see a logical reason as to why you shouldn’t go.” 

Josie took a step closer to Hope with every explanation until she was face to face with her. Hope still wouldn’t look at Josie, but now it wasn’t because she was trying to persuade her with her puppy dog eyes; now it was because her heart was breaking in her chest at the thought of having to see her with Natalie and she was afraid that if she looked her in the eyes Josie would somehow know what she was feeling and why. So she kept her eyes fixed on the neighbor’s dog and tried her best not to let her feelings show. 

“Did I do something?” Josie asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Hope looked at her then, a decision which she greatly regretted as soon as her eyes were met with deep brown ones. 

Her eyes were sad - a level of sadness she hadn’t seen in her since the day she came to her with a bloody nose, courtesy of Dana and her merry band of bitches - and her shoulders hung low, making her look impossibly small. 

“No,” Hope responded quickly, offering her a reassuring smile while placing her hands on her shoulders. “No, of course you didn’t.”

“Then what am I missing?” Josie sighed, her voice breaking a little. “Why don’t you want to hang out with me?” 

“It’s not you, Jo. It’s just -” 

Hope stopped herself mid-thought. She didn’t have an explanation as to why she didn’t want to go. Well, she did, but it wasn’t one she could tell Josie. I mean, how was she supposed to tell her best friend that the reason she didn’t want to go swimming with her friends was because she was jealous of her girlfriend? 

No, that wasn’t an option, so she decided to go with the next best thing: surrendering. 

“You know what? Nevermind. I’ll go.” 

“Really?” Josie’s eyes lit up at hearing her words, melting Hope’s heart completely. Her hard expression softened and she smiled, genuinely now. 

“Yeah,” Hope sighed. “Yeah, really.” 

“Yay!” Josie launched herself into her best friend’s arms, their previous disagreement already forgotten. She pulled back and put her arms on Hope’s shoulders. “Now we gotta find you something to wear.” 

“Josie! Hope! You’re here!” Vanessa cheered as soon as they crossed the threshold to the backyard of the Taylor mansion for the hundredth time that summer. 

Josie happily ran into her open arms and waved at the rest of the group once she was released. Hope followed, accepting the hug that was also being offered to her. Vanessa walked over to the pool so she could dip her feet in while Hope wandered over to the table where Landon and Raf were, looking out over the water.

She watched sadly as Josie skipped over to Natalie and hugged her tightly. And when they kissed she had to look away because she could feel her stomach drop at the sight. 

“Hi Hope,” Landon smiled as she approached their table. She waved at him and Rafael and took a seat on the empty chair, opposite from them. 

Hope put on her most convincing smile and tried to ignore Josie and her girlfriend. “Hey guys. What’s up?” 

“Not much,” Landon responded, “we were just waiting for you and Josie so we could get a game of volleyball going.” 

“Sounds fun,” Hope sighed, looking around the backyard. 

MG was in the pool already, working on his backstroke apparently, Vanessa sat on the edge of the pool near the deep, jokingly criticizing the way MG swam, and Natalie and Josie were talking close to the door where the stereo was. Natalie was looking through her phone, trying to decide on a playlist while Josie rambled on and on about something that made her laugh. 

Hope averted her eyes and looked back to the two boys that sat at the table with her. 

“Come on, guys!” MG shouted. He stood in the shallow end with his goggles pulled over his eyes, making him look kind of funny. “I’m starting to turn into a raisin here! Let’s start the game!” 

“Hold your horses, Milton,” Landon said, knowing he hated to be called by his first name. MG rolled his eyes and went back under the water, but not before flipping him off. 

Landon laughed and looked over at Hope. Hope returned his smile and thought his laugh sounded kind of nice. 

“Shall we?” he asked, nodding his head in the direction of the pool. 

Hope nodded and walked over to the edge of the water.

Once Natalie finally settled on a playlist and her and Josie joined the rest of them in the pool, they got a game of volleyball going; Josie, Natalie and MG against Rafael, Landon, Vanessa and Hope. 

Hope was distracted the entire game. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t keep her eyes off the happy couple. Every time they’d score, Natalie would shoot Josie a wink or she’d blow her a kiss and every time Josie would turn into a blushing mess. The guys would yell at them to get a room or tease them in some other way while Hope simply smiled at her best friend, but really her chest would ache at the sight and she’d have to hold back the tears that wanted to form in her eyes. 

Hope’s team lost by three points all because she couldn’t keep her focus where it should have been, but nobody seemed to mind or notice. At the end of the game they all got out of the pool and ate pizza. MG and Natalie teased the others, saying that even with an extra teammate they still couldn’t win. Rafael, Landon and Vanessa all went along with the playful banter and countered with some witty response, but Hope wasn’t really paying much attention to them so she didn’t catch what they said. 

When the sun started to set, Hope got a text from her mom letting her know she was outside. She and Josie said their goodbyes, Josie lingering a little longer during her hug with Natalie than with any of the others, and hopped in the backseat of the car waiting out front for them. 

They made it back to Hope’s house pretty quickly, though the drive seemed to last hours, in Hope’s opinion. Josie kept eyeing her suspiciously when she thought Hope wasn’t looking, so she was anxious the entire time. 

_Did she notice me acting weird? Does she know what’s going on?_ Hope asked herself, her worry only growing more and more with each question. 

They walked quietly up the stairs, Josie following closely behind her. But the silence didn’t last. When they entered Hope’s room and the door shut, Josie turned to Hope and narrowed her eyes at her. 

“Okay, what’s going on with you?” 

“What are you talking about? Nothing’s going on with me.” Hope sat down on her bed and tried to ignore her best friend by pulling out a book, but Josie was having none of that. 

She sat down on the edge of the bed and took the book from Hope’s hands and set it back down on her nightstand. Hope glared at her, but didn’t try to get it back. 

“Hope,” Josie said sternly.

Hope glared at Josie, her eyes full of annoyance. “What?” 

“Seriously, what’s going on with you?” Josie asked. 

“Nothing!” Hope whined, praying that she would drop this. She hated lying to her; it was exhausting and it made her feel like trash because Josie was her best friend, she wasn’t supposed to keep secrets from her. 

Josie looked at her for a long time and then suddenly a look of understanding washed over her face.

“Ah,” she sighed, “I think I know what’s going on.” 

Hope’s face went pale as the blood drained from her face. “You do?”

“Yep.” Josie stood up and took a few steps towards the door. She turned on her heels and shot Hope a devilish smile. “You have a crush, don’t you?” 

Hope couldn’t breathe. The air in the room seemed limited and her mouth was as dry as the desert. 

_Oh god, she figured it out. How did she figure it out? Are you kidding me? How could she not figure it out! You’re no better at hiding things than MG is!_

As she sat there, frozen and internally yelling at herself, Josie walked closer to her with that same smirk still plastered on her face. 

“You do!” she squealed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I - I just, hadn’t found the right time, I guess,” Hope choked out. 

“It’s Landon, isn’t it?” Josie asked, narrowing her eyes at Hope once more. And when Hope didn’t answer she took that as confirmation. “Oh my gosh! I knew it! Are you two, like, talking or something? Cause I totally caught him making googly eyes at you, too.” 

“No, no,” Hope laughed softly, being able to breathe once more once she realized Josie was still oblivious about her feelings towards her. “I, umm, I haven’t told him. I wasn’t sure if he liked me.” 

“Oh, and I’m the oblivious one,” Josie scoffed. “Have you not seen the way he looks at you? He’s so into you. Everybody can tell.” 

“Really?” Hope didn’t know what else to say. She was still trying to collect her thoughts. 

She didn’t know Hope liked her. She had no clue. Her secret was safe. She hadn’t given herself away, though it’d been a close call. She would have to be more careful in the future. 

“Come on, Hope.” Josie sat down in front of her again. “How could he not be? You’re smart, funny, nice, talented, and super gorgeous. He’d be an idiot not to like you.” 

Hope’s stomach filled with butterflies at her words. She ducked her head down, letting her hair hide her face, which was now probably the same color as her red converse. If only she knew what her words did to her, what they meant to her…

“Thanks,” she finally muttered after she realized she should probably say something. 

Hope’s phone buzzed in her purse, getting both girl’s attention. Since Josie was closer to it, she grabbed it and looked at the name on the screen. Her eyes lit up and she smirked as she handed Hope the phone. 

“Speak of the devil,” she said suggestively. 

Hope unlocked her phone and read the message, a small smile appearing on her face.

Landon: good game today :) you got a killer spike btw, ever consider trying out for the team?

Josie tried to take a peek at her phone, but Hope playfully shoved her away. 

“Go away,” she laughed. “Go text your girlfriend or something.” 

The words tasted like bile coming out of her mouth, but she managed to keep her smile in place. She had to keep up appearances, for Josie’s sake. 

“Maybe I will.” Josie stuck out her tongue at Hope and laughed as she walked away. She got her phone out of her own bag and sat down in Hope’s desk chair. 

Hope shot Landon a quick text and they continued to talk for the rest of the night. She found out that they actually had a lot in common. For example, they both liked the same bands. Their taste in literature wasn’t quite the same, a fact that caused a bit of conflict, but once they agreed to disagree it was pretty much smooth sailing from there on out. 

Towards the end of their conversation - at about two in the morning - Landon finally got the courage to ask Hope out. Needless to say, she was the slightest bit torn. She liked Landon; he was sweet and funny and thoughtful and she had a really nice time talking to him, but he wasn’t the one she really wanted to be with. 

_But you can’t be with her_ , the voice in the back of her mind reminded her, _and Freya did say to find a distraction. Maybe this is it. Maybe he’ll be good for you._

So despite the ache in her heart as she looked over at a sleeping Josie on the bed next to her, she sent him one final text before she went to sleep. 

Hope: I’d love to go out with you :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That felt a little short tbh, but I hope you liked it! Let me know what you thought about it and what you think will happen in the upcoming chapters as they start the new school year. Will it be a repeat of last year? Will it be better? Worse? Leave me all your theories in the comments :))


	6. Chapter 6

As Hope and Landon walked hand in hand down the dimly lit street, Hope thought this could actually work. Over the past two weeks they’d had a lot of fun together, going out to the movies, eating ice cream in the park, roller skating for hours, Hope cracking up every time Landon fell. It was nice. It was simple. It was easy. 

Sure, it wasn’t perfect, this had all started out because Hope needed to use him as a distraction, but now she thought she might actually like him. Like, really like him. 

“You’re quiet tonight,” Landon observed. “What are you thinking about?” 

“Nothing,” Hope smiled. “Just thinking about how great that movie was.” 

“Right? I mean, did you see the way that guy just totally dodged the car door that got thrown at him? It was so awesome-” 

Hope smiled as he continued rambling about the movie they’d just seen, thinking that she liked it when he got excited about things like this. His passion for action scenes amused her, made her think of the way Josie got worked up whenever she talked about music. 

_No_ , she told herself. _You have to stop thinking about her. You’re with Landon and she’s just your best friend. Focus on what’s in front of you._

So she did just that. For the rest of their walk Hope listened to Landon talk about some other movie he’d seen recently with his brother, a comic book he’d finished two days ago, and his worries for the start of middle school. 

“What do you think it’ll be like?” he asked once they were only a block away from Hope’s house. 

“I don’t know,” Hope said. “It’ll definitely be different, I’m just hoping it’ll be different in a good way.” 

“Me too,” he said quietly. 

They stopped walking once they got to Hope’s house, Landon standing in front of her while still holding on to her hands. He nervously ran his thumb over the back of her hand while staring at her shoes. 

“I uh,” he laughed. “I had a really good time tonight.” 

Hope smiled. “So did I.” 

He looked up at her, making Hope’s stomach fill with butterflies. She knew what was coming next, she’d been waiting for it for some time now. He always did this when they said goodbye, looked as if he were about to do it, then back out at the very last second, but this time it was different. There was a determination in his eyes that made her think this was it. He was going to kiss her. 

Landon leaned in, hesitating for a second to give her time to back out, but she didn’t. Hope knew she had to, that if it didn’t happen tonight it was going to tomorrow or next week, so might as well just get it over with now. 

His lips brushed softly against hers, applying the lightest amount of pressure. Hope could taste the lingering saltiness of the popcorn on his mouth. It definitely wasn’t what she was expecting, but it wasn’t bad. 

The kiss was short, only lasting a few seconds, but it seemed Landon definitely enjoyed it. He was beaming when he pulled back, his excitement evident in the way he rocked back on the heels of his shoes with his hands stuck in his pockets. Hope thought it was cute when he got shy. 

“I’ll, uh, I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asked, backing away from the house. 

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” Hope smiled, watching as he walked away and eventually disappeared down the street. 

She opened the door as quietly as she could and walked inside, smiling when she saw her mom sitting on the couch, a book in her lap while she held a cup of coffee in between her hands. Hope walked over and planted a kiss on her cheek. She was about to go upstairs to her room when the sound of her mother’s voice stopped her as she got on the first step. 

“How was the movie?” 

“Good,” Hope nodded, getting off the step. “Yeah, lots of action and stuff.” 

“You hate action movies,” her mom frowned. 

Hope shrugged. “He likes them.” 

Hayley smiled and shook her head, returning her attention to her book as if to make it seem like she was barely interested in the conversation. “So did he kiss you yet?” 

Hope’s face went bright red at the mention of the kiss and when Hayley looked up at her over the pages of her book she laughed at her daughter’s expression. 

“He did, didn’t he!” 

“Shhh!” Hope hissed, trying to contain her laugh. She walked over to the couch and took a seat next to her mom. “Dad’s gonna hear you and then he’s gonna kill Landon. Do you want to be responsible for a murder?” 

Hayley laughed. “God, you are such a drama queen; I swear you get that from your father.” She closed the book and provided Hope with her full attention. “So how was it?” 

Hope played with the charm bracelet on her wrist -- the one Josie had given her -- and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know… alright I guess.” 

“That bad, huh?” Hayley laughed. 

Hope threw her head back, resting it against the back of the couch and staring up at the ceiling. “No, not bad, just not what I expected, you know? It’s like everyone always talks about how there’s supposed to be fireworks and you’re supposed to get butterflies or some corny stuff like that, but it was nothing like that. We kissed for like three seconds and that was that. No fireworks. No butterflies. Nothing.” 

Hayley nodded. “Yeah, I remember my first kiss. Little Johnny Watkins. He took me to the eighth grade dance and stepped on my feet the entire night.” Hope giggled at the image. “Then at the end of the night we snuck out to the back of the school and he kissed me under the basketball hoop of the first court.” 

“How romantic,” Hope laughed, sitting back up. 

“Oh not at all,” Hayley grimaced. “He tasted like gummy bears and weed. It was actually pretty gross.” Hope scrunched up her nose while Hayley chuckled. “My point is, first kisses aren’t always magical and amazing, we’re not in a Disney movie, but maybe over time it’ll get better or maybe he’s just not the guy for you.” 

“Like how Johnny wasn’t the guy for you?” 

Hayley gently shoved her shoulder. “Exactly.” 

Hope sighed. “I don’t know if he’s the right guy for me, but I really like hanging out with him.” 

“And that’s totally fine,” Hayley said softly. “Whatever you decide to do, I’m here for you, one-hundred percent.” 

Hope gave her a little smile and hugged her. “Thanks, mom.” 

“Anytime, sweetie,” Hayley said into her hair. She kissed the top of it and then let her go saying, “now go brush your teeth and go to sleep, you have school in the morning.” 

Hope groaned but did as she was told. She hopped up the stairs and stopped by her parents’ room to say goodnight to her dad, grateful that he didn’t ask about what she did while she was out. Once she was done getting ready for bed, she laid awake for hours, wondering if she was doing the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really short but I really needed to update this. I promise the next chapter will be longer since I have a little bit of drama in store for y'all >:) Hope you enjoyed <3 comments are always greatly appreciated as they are my motivation to keep writing lol so leave me your thoughts and theories !


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? Me? Updating two different stories in the same week?   
> What can I say, inspiration struck and I felt like I owed you guys since I've been lagging for some time now. So here you go, enjoy a little bit of drama :P

Hope groaned when her alarm went off at precisely 6:35am, but when she reached over to turn it off, she saw it wasn’t her alarm at all. Josie was calling, which didn’t take Hope by surprise, really. She knew her best friend would be nervous for their first day, she just couldn’t figure out what she could be calling about at this hour of the morning. 

Before Hope could even get a “hello?” in, Josie was rambling. 

“Hey, sorry to wake you up so early, it’s just that, well, I didn’t get much sleep last night because I was thinking about what you said, you know? About this being a fresh start for us and then I got to thinking some more and then I realized I have no idea how to dress. Well, I know how but not well enough for middle school. I mean, this is a big deal. I can’t dress like a little kid anymore and I don’t know what to wear and-” 

“Josie,” Hope interrupted, effectively causing the younger girl to quiet down. “Take a breath, calm down and tell me what you were thinking of wearing.” 

Hope listened as Josie went over seven different options for her back to school outfit. She could have easily cut the conversation short, telling her that people didn’t actually care what she wore, that no one would remember a week from now, but she knew that this was important to her, so she listened and helped her make a decision about an hour later while she got ready herself. 

“Do you think Natalie will like it?” 

The question made her feel like a knife was being twisted in her stomach. Hope didn’t want to answer, the thought of the raven haired girl being all over Josie, complimenting her, it didn’t sit well with her, but regardless of how she felt, she put on a smile, despite the fact that Josie couldn’t see her, and she said, “She’s going to love it.” 

Josie squealed in delight and blew a kiss into the phone. 

“Thank you! I love you, I’ll see you at school. Meet me by the front gates?” 

“See you there,” Hope said quietly, hanging up right after. 

Josie and Hope walked through the loud hallways together with their arms linked and their eyes scanning the room numbers on the sides of the buildings. They were desperately trying to figure out where their classes were so they wouldn’t be late later on in the day, but so far they’d only had luck finding three out of the six, each. The process would have probably gone a lot faster with another two pairs of eyes helping, but Lizzie and MG had decided to run off somewhere, leaving the two girls alone and completely lost. 

“How do people do this?” Josie complained, looking for her math class. “It’s like a maze in here. This is insane. We’re never gonna find all of these classes.” 

“Calm down,” Hope smiled. “I’m sure we’ll find them eventually.” 

“You’re in a good mood,” Josie observed, forgetting about her classes temporarily. Her eyes fixed in on Hope’s small grin. “How’d your date go last night?” 

“Fine. We watched a movie and then he walked me home.” 

Josie raised her eyebrows at her. “Are you sure that’s all? Nothing else happened?” 

Hope tried to hide her face behind her schedule, feeling it turn a bright shade of red under her friend’s scrutinous eyes. 

“Something else might have happened…” 

“I knew it!” the brunette exclaimed. “What happened? Did he kiss you?” 

Hope’s cheeks turned a darker shade of red, which was all the confirmation Josie needed. 

“He did, didn’t he! Oh my god, how was it?” 

“Why don’t we talk about this later?” Hope said, trying to get Josie off the topic. “If we don’t find the rest of these classes now, we’re going to be wandering around completely lost later.” 

“Might help if you had someone who knew the school, then.” Both girls turned around and smiled when they saw who it was. 

Landon stood behind them with Rafael and Nick at his sides, his eyes fixed on the auburn haired girl as if she were the only other person in this hallway. 

“Landon,” Hope sighed. “Hey.” 

“Hey,” the boy smiled. “You guys need some help?”

“Desperately,” Josie groaned, making everyone laugh. 

The five of them walked up and down the halls, paying close attention when Landon pointed out the room numbers to their classes. When they finished with the tour and saw that they still had some time left they decided to sit down by a tree and talk for a while in order to kill some time. 

“So how do you know the school so well?” Josie asked, leaning on the cement next to Hope. “I thought you were in seventh grade like the rest of us.” 

“I am,” Landon nodded. “But Raf and I have a cousin that went here last year and we’d always come and watch him play.” 

“Football?” Hope asked. 

Rafael shook his head. “Basketball. Jerry was a pro.” 

“Oh, yeah!” Nick said. “I forgot. Jerry’s play in that last game was epic.” 

“Remember that play right before they called the end of the first quarter?” Landon asked. Nick nodded. 

“That was Jerry’s play,” Rafael smiled proudly. 

“No way!” Nick exclaimed. 

“Oh god, please tell me you’re not talking about sports,” a familiar voice groaned as two sets of footsteps neared the group. 

Natalie and Vanessa walked up to them and stopped a few inches away from where Hope and Josie were seated. 

“Of course they are, look at them,” Natalie motioned towards the two girls. “They’re bored out of their minds.” 

The girls laughed. 

“Come on,” Vanessa said, motioning for Hope to take her hand. “Let’s leave them to do what guys do best: obsess about a bunch of sweaty dudes throwing balls around.” 

Hope took her hand and stood, Natalie and Josie following close behind as they walked away from the guys. The four of them laughed as they heard Rafael, Nick and Landon shouting in response to Vanessa’s comment. 

“Why you gotta say it like that?” 

“Not cool, Vane!” 

“Dude, what the…? That’s not-” 

The girls scurried away, giggling as they rounded the corner and emerged into the crowded hallway. They talked about the classes they’d gotten while they walked, comparing schedules to see how many they’d gotten together. Apparently they all shared at least one class with each other. 

Once the bell rang, they stopped and looked down at the slips of paper in their hands. 

“Which way are you guys going?” Vanessa asked Hope and Josie, already knowing that she had first period with Natalie. 

“Down to room 157,” Hope responded, pointing back down the way they’d just come. 

“Room 149,” Josie muttered, disappointed that she had to wait until sixth period to have a class with her girlfriend. 

“Guess we’ll see you guys at lunch then,” Vanessa smiled, waving at them as she started to walk away. 

Natalie lingered for a second more, seemingly torn between just walking away or saying goodbye. She settled on the former. She gave them a half smile, ducked her head down, adjusted her bag over her right shoulder and walked away without giving Josie so much as a second glance. Her eyes were glued to the floor as she caught up to Vanessa. 

Hope looked over at Josie, who was staring at Natalie. Hope could see the pain and confusion in her eyes. She knew how anxious Josie was for this school year already and Natalie was not making it any easier. If she knew her best friend -- and she did -- she knew that Josie would be thinking this was somehow her fault, that she did something wrong, which was simply impossible. 

“Jo,” Hope muttered, placing a hand on Josie’s arm. That seemed to bring her back to reality. 

“I’m fine,” Josie smiled. “We should get to class.” 

Hope knew it was an act, that she was hurting more than she let on, but she didn’t want to push her. She would talk to her when she was ready. 

Hope nodded and together they walked to their first classes of the day.

“What do you mean she just walked away? What the hell are you talking about?” 

“You told her?” 

“I’m sorry! She asked and you know I hate lying.” _Like how I’ve been lying to you._

Hope leaned back against the row of lockers, her back leaning against the one that now belonged to her, at least for the rest of the school year. She watched as the two sisters talked about the incident in the morning. Lizzie was pissed, Josie was annoyed. This always seemed to be the case with the two of them, it was something Hope had gotten used to. 

She pushed herself off the lockers and decided to try out her combination while the blonde and the brunette argued, knowing it would probably go on for the remainder of break. She didn’t have anything to put in the small space, she didn’t have her textbooks yet and she needed her backpack, but she figured she might as well start trying to memorize her combination now. 

“Hope?” Lizzie said just as Hope managed to get her locker open. 

“Sorry, what?” Hope asked. Her mind had blocked out their bickering, a skill that came in handy in a large variety of situations. 

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “I said back me up here. Tell her that she needs to talk to Natalie to figure out what’s going on.” 

Hope looked back and forth between the two of them as they looked at her expectantly, unsure of what to say. 

“Whatever you want to do, Jo,” she finally said, shrugging as she closed the door carefully. 

“Thank you,” Josie sighed. “Can you please just drop it now? I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” 

“Fine,” Lizzie huffed. “So what class are you going to next?” 

Josie visibly relaxed as they changed topics. They hung out by Hope’s locker until the bell rang, each of them going their separate ways. 

When lunch rolled around, none of them knew what to expect. Hope wanted to ask Josie if she wanted to eat at a different table, just the two of them, but before she could get the chance to ask Landon and Nick saw them and waved them over. Natalie and Vanessa weren’t there yet and Hope could see Josie breathe a little easier as she noticed their absence. 

Josie and Hope sat down next to Lizzie and MG. The rest of the guys smiled and waved at them from the other side of the table. 

“How’s day one treating you guys?” Nick asked, shoveling mashed potatoes into his mouth shortly after. 

“Not bad,” Hope responded. “I mean, history was brutal, but other than that it’s been going pretty well.” 

“Brutal on the first day?” Landon asked. “How? Isn’t everyone just doing those stupid ice breaker games?” 

“Exactly,” Hope huffed. They all laughed. 

Rafael looked like he was going to say something but then his eyes locked onto someone coming out of the lunch line. Without looking, they all knew who it was. And the atmosphere in the room suddenly felt ten times more tense. 

When Natalie and Vanessa arrived, Vanessa took a seat next to Nick on the other side of the table. Natalie lingered between the open seat next to Josie and the one next to Vanessa. After a few moments of debating, she decided to sit next to her friend. 

Josie didn’t look up from her untouched food tray. Natalie avoided everyone’s eyes, instead opting to put all of her focus into carefully removing her napkin, spork and straw from the plastic wrapper. 

A quiet settled over their table that no one was willing to break. Or more so, they didn’t know how to. Everyone was aware that Natalie and Josie were together, they’d witnessed just how together they were all summer, so everyone found Natalie’s behavior extremely odd. But no one was willing to say anything. 

After five minutes of awkward silence, Josie abruptly stood up from the table without a word and walked out. Lizzie and Hope exchanged a look, nodded, and quickly followed after her. They lost her in the hall, but they had a pretty good idea where she might be. 

After last year’s events, Josie hated school bathrooms. They reminded her of all the awful things Dana and her friends did to her, so she avoided them at all costs, so they knew not to bother looking in there for her. Instead, whenever she was upset she ran to the bleachers behind the baseball field and sat under them. It used to take Hope forever to find her. This time, Hope and Lizzie found her in no time.

Just as they had suspected, Josie was crying in the furthest corner under the bleachers. The two of them crawled under, Hope ignoring all the faces Lizzie was making, surely because she was thinking about how her jeans would get ruined, and they each took a seat on either side of Josie. 

“She’s an idiot,” Lizzie began, ignoring the pointed look that Hope was shooting her way. “She doesn’t know what she’s missing out on. You should just dump her ass and move on. We could find you a cute guy in no time.” 

“Lizzie,” Hope hissed. She turned her attention to Josie. “I think what Lizzie meant to say is that, you should be with someone who is proud to be with you, and if Natalie doesn’t appreciate you for who you are, then it’s her loss.” 

“And she should get lost,” Lizzie added. Hope sighed, giving up on trying to scold her. 

Josie sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “I just don’t know what I did wrong.” 

“Nothing,” the other two said simultaneously. 

“Then why won’t she even look at me?” 

“Because she’s an idiot,” Lizzie repeated. 

Hope rolled her eyes. “We don’t know, but if this is the way it’s going to be, then maybe you are better off without her.” 

“But I don’t want to break up with her,” Josie said quietly, her voice breaking on the last word. “I -- I really, really like her. I just want to know why she’s mad at me.” 

“Then you’re going to have to talk to her,” Hope said. “Maybe you can get her alone after school and you guys can talk then?” 

“Or maybe you can give her the silent treatment when she tries to talk to you so she knows how it feels,” Lizzie countered. 

“Maybe not the most productive solution,” Hope said, her tone slightly sarcastic. “But like I said earlier, Jo, whatever you want to do. We’ve got your back.” 

Josie looked up at them and smiled. “Thanks.” 

The sound of the bell caused all three of them to look out at the sea of students making their way back towards the buildings. They crawled out from under the bleachers and headed off towards their next class. 

Hope was worried about Josie; as much as she didn’t like Natalie and her being together, she liked seeing Josie upset a lot less. She thought about getting involved, talking to Natalie herself to see what was going on, but decided against it, thinking she was probably the last person that should be meddling in her best friend’s love life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think should happen next? Should they talk? Break up? Let me know! As always, your comments are greatly appreciated :)


End file.
